Online Learning Among Primary and Middle School Children in Rural Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India- A Story of Inequitable Distribution

1. Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Sri Lalithambigai Medical College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. 2. Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Karpaga Vinayaga Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. 3. Medical Officer, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Apollo Hospital Greams Road, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. 4. Medical Officer, Department of General Medicine, ACS Medical College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. 5. Professor and Head, Department of Community Medicine, Indira Medical College and Hospitals, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. 6. Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Balaji Medical College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.

Abstract

Introduction: The Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has disrupted education and has resulted in a lot of educational losses which is bound to be more exaggerated in the rural areas. The present study was done to assess the availability of prerequisites for online learning among a rural population. The study also looks at the school dropout rates due to the COVID-19 pandemic in a rural population in Tamil Nadu, India.

Aim: To estimate the access to digital devices and school dropout rates in a rural population, to find the hassles faced due to online learning and to identify the risk factors for dropping out of school.

Materials and Methods: The present community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in the rural field practice areas of Karpaga Vinayaga Medical College (KVMC) situated in Chinna Kolambakkam beyond Chengalpet, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India and data collection was done between June 2021 and August 2021, using a semi-structured proforma. Data was collected from 256 children between the ages of 6-14 years residing in a rural area in Tamil Nadu, to learn about their transition in education during the pandemic and to identify the factors determining dropping out of school. Associations between school dropouts and socio-demographic factors were found using Chi-square test.

Results: Out of total study participants, 131 (51.2%) belonged to primary school and the rest belonged to the middle school category and there were 138 (53.9%) boys and 118 (46.1%) girls. Of all the study participants, 39 (15.2%) had dropped out of school. Dropouts had a statistically significant association with lower socio-economic status (p-value=0.00000007), lower educational status of the father (p-value=0.043), male gender (p-value=0.037) and belonging to a private school (p-value=0.045). Only 25 (9.7%) owned the gadget, they were using to attend online classes.

Conclusion: The current study has revealed high school dropout rates (15.2%) than rural primary and middle school children with inadequate access to digital devices.

BG Prasad classification, Coronavirus disease 2019, Dropout, Semi-structured proforma

The director general of World Health Organisation (WHO) in March 2020 declared COVID-19 as a pandemic and social distancing was announced as a means of controlling the pandemic (1). Lockdown was implemented in most countries, workplaces and educational institutes were shut down which proved to be efficient and yet led to many challenges to both the teachers and students (2). This emergency transition had lots of set-backs associated with poor online teaching infrastructure, inexperience of teachers, the information gap, and the complex environment at home. In addition, there was lack of mentoring and support (3).

Many countries around the world instructed schools and colleges to start e-Learning classes. Though urban students with good internet facilities benefitted, but students from rural areas faced many challenges because of lack of facilities (4). Which resulted in many students discontinuing school education in rural areas, which in turn may have adverse effects on their livelihoods in the future. Besides the potential digital divide and distance learning practices, school closure may have disrupted physical activity, social interaction, and mental health of children (5). During the pandemic, the Tamil Nadu Government started the “illam thedi kalvi” program with the help of volunteers to help the school dropouts to learn through extracurricular activities with the help of volunteers. The order to resume physical classes was passed by the Tamil Nadu Government for students of classes nine and above (from September 2021), and for classes 1-8 (from 1st November 2021), after a gap of 19 months. Although there is consensus that closure of schools can cause harm, there is lack of evidence on the extent of harm that was caused due to closure of schools (6).

The abovementioned facts have raised many questions on the availability and utilisation of e-learning population of rural school children in the 19 months, that they did not have physical classes for. Hence, a study was taken up amongst primary and middle schoolers in rural Chennai with the objectives of estimating the prevalence of access to digital learning devices, identifying the hassles faced because of digital learning, estimating the school dropout rates because of the pandemic, and determining the association between school dropouts and socio-demographic factors.

Material and Methods

The present community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in the rural field practice areas of Karpaga Vinayaga Medical College (KVMC) situated in Chinna Kolambakkam beyond Chengalpet, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India and data collection was done between June 2021 and August 2021. The study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee (IEC Ref No KIMS/F/2021/13). Informed consent was obtained from a parent, and in addition assent was also obtained from children aged >7 years of age.

Inclusion criteria: Children aged 6-14 years of age, were included in the study after they expressed their willingness through consent from a parent and through assent if they were above the age of seven.

Exclusion criteria: Children with underlying illnesses that interfere with regular school education were excluded from the study.

Sample size calculation: An online survey done in Tamil Nadu found that 40% of the students did not have computers or small gadgets for e-Learning (4).

Sample size (SS)=zα²PQ/L²
zα=1.96; P=40%; Q=100-P=60%; L=15% of P=6;
SS=(1.96)2*40*60/6*6=256
Therefore, the calculated sample size was 256 participants.

Study Procedure

The pandemic COVID-19 is a novel phenomenon, and this is the first time that schools remained shut for extended periods of time. Since there was paucity of literature, a tailor-made 30 item proforma was prepared based on expert opinions from subject experts. Test-retest and inter-rater reliability were calculated during the pilot study, which was done on 5% of the sample size. The test-retest correlation coefficient was 0.9 and Cohen’s Kappa score for interrater reliability was 0.8. Necessary modifications were incorporated. Socio-economic classification was calculated using the modified BG Prasad classification 2021 (7). Pilot testing of the proforma was done on ~5% (15 individuals) to ensure comprehension and feasibility. The respondent’s identity details were kept confidential. The questionnaire is available in [Appendix-1].

Statistical Analysis

Data entry and analysis was done using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 28.0. Descriptive data was tabulated using percentages and 95% confidence intervals were calculated. Associations were found using Chi-square values found by Mantel Haenszel test which in turn was used to determine the p-values. The p-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results

Among 256 study participants, 131 (51.2%) belonged to primary school and the rest belonged to the middle school category. There were more boys (n=138, 53.9%) than girls (n=118, 46.1%). Most of the fathers had completed middle school 102 (39.8%), as also had most of the mothers 109 (42.6%). The socio-economic status of the subjects was assessed using the BG Prasad 2021 scale and most of them belonged to class III (middle class) 116 (45.3%) (Table/Fig 1).

When asked about the school last attended, 123 (48.0%) were found to have attended a private school and 39 (15.2%) had dropped out of school. The reason mentioned for dropping out of school by all (100%) dropouts was the inability to pay fees. Among the study participants, 29 (11.3%) received concession in school fees in view of the pandemic. There was a statistically significant association between the type of school last attended and dropping out of school, wherein 25 out of 39 (64.1%) were from private schools (p-value=0.045) (Table/Fig 2). A total of 132 (51.6%) of the study subjects attended classes regularly, 187 (73.1%) said they needed a gadget with internet connectivity to attend classes, 75 (29.3%) had both live and recorded sessions, 25 (9.7%) owned a gadget, 183 (71.5%) used a mobile type gadget and 121 (47.2%) had 4G with good connectivity. A 14.8% of the parents said that they had bought a new gadget to support their child’s learning (Table/Fig 3).

The number of boys who dropped out of school was 2.15 times higher than the number of girls and the association was statistically significant (p-value=0.037). Students who belonged to lower class and lower middle class according to BG Prasad classification were 6.36 times more likely to dropout of school, when compared to the subjects from middle class, upper middle class and upper class and the association was statistically significant (p-value=0.00000007). Subjects whose fathers had educational qualification of middle class and below were more 2.14 times more likely to dropout of school and the association was statistically significant (p-value=0.043). However, the other associations were not statistically significant. Details can be seen in (Table/Fig 4). Boys were more likely to use the gadgets for recreational purposes like watching YouTube and playing videogames, details can be seen in (Table/Fig 5).

Among the study participants, 184 (71.9%) said that online classes had more hassles when compared to the physical classes in school, 34 (13.3%) thought that online assessments were reliable and 173 (67.6%) were prepared to send their wards to physical classes, if school opened the very next day. Details can be seen in (Table/Fig 6). When asked what the hassles faced were, the common responses shared were that concentration and comprehension were less compared with physical classes, headaches were frequent, distractions due to watching movies and playing games during classes, gadget related issues and internet connectivity issues.

Discussion

The current study showed the school dropout rates were 15.2%, this was comparable to the dropout rates of a study done in Mayang Imphal constituency that revealed dropout rates of different schools between 5.5% and 17% (8). The leading cause for dropout was found to be poverty in that study, which was comparable to the results of the current study that has shown that, dropout rates were significantly much higher (p-value=0.00000007) among lower socio-economic status and lower middle class when compared to the middle class, upper middle class and upper class subjects.

A study done in Pakistan on school dropouts and its consequences concluded that girls had significantly lower Learning Adjusted Life Years (LAYS) among girls when compared to boys (9). Whereas, the current study showed that the dropout rates were significantly higher among boys (p-value=0.037), this could be because this was a temporary phenomenon because of COVID-19 pandemic as another study done on 41,554 households across all states and union territories in India also found that the dropout rates were significantly more among girls when compared to boys (OR=1.11, 1.00-1.23) (10). The current study revealed that there were significantly more dropouts among subjects who last attended a private school (p-value=0.045), which was comparable to the findings of an all-India survey, which found that students from private schools were 2.17 times more likely to dropout of school (10). A study done in rural Madhya Pradesh, India, among Government undergraduate students concluded that rural students prefer offline classes and that 45% of the students did not attend regularly and join online classes for an entire session which was similar to the results of the current study were only 51.6% of the students were attending online classes regularly (2). A qualitative research study done on 18 teachers, showed that only 9/18 (50%) said that online assessments were reliable and 15/18 (83.3%) faced some difficulty with online assessments, which was similar to the results of the current study that revealed that 86.7% of the informants did not think that online assessments were reliable (11). The study has shown very important information on the infrastructure deficits that the rural population has which in turn hinders online education, only 9.7% of the study subjects had their own gadget that could be used for attending their classes. However, further comparisons could not be made because of paucity of literature from similar population.

Limitation(s)

The limitation of the present study was the fact that, it was a onetime survey with no follow-up provisions to find out, if the students who had dropped out of school had resumed, after the physical classes had resumed in schools.

Conclusion

The present study has revealed very high school dropout rates among rural primary and middle school children (15.2%). The study has identified certain factors such as socio-economic status, educational status of the father, type of school that were associated with students dropping out of school. The current study has been an eye opener with regards to the harsh realities of infrastructure inadequacies in a rural population. The present study also showed how education was not treated as a priority and how measures were not taken to ensure the availability of necessary resources. Followup studies on the postpandemic status of the dropouts would be worthwhile and interesting, as would research on adaptation of blended learning.

DOI and Others

DOI: 10.7860/JCDR/2023/62769.18217

Date of Submission: Jan 10, 2023
Date of Peer Review: Mar 10, 2023
Date of Acceptance: May 04, 2023
Date of Publishing: Jul 01, 2023

AUTHOR DECLARATION:
• Financial or Other Competing Interests: None
• Was Ethics Committee Approval obtained for this study? Yes
• Was informed consent obtained from the subjects involved in the study? Yes
• For any images presented appropriate consent has been obtained from the subjects. NA

PLAGIARISM CHECKING METHODS:
• Plagiarism X-checker: Jan 17, 2023
• Manual Googling: Mar 09, 2023
• iThenticate Software: Apr 26, 2023 (5%)

ETYMOLOGY: Author Origin

EMENDATIONS: 8