Online classes still out of reach for 60,000 Mumbai students

Some don’t have smart devices, some internet; BMC trying to reach them via other modes

More than 60,000 school students across the city are still unable to attend online classes, according to the data shared by the education department of the BMC. There are 1,700 more students who have not been traced since the physical classes stopped following the COVID-19 lockdown in March. The data includes information from a total of 2,387 civic, government-aided, unaided and private schools, where over 6.5 lakh students are enrolled.

Of the 60,000-plus students cut off from online classes, 37,213 don’t have a smartphone or a computer, while 20,367 lack internet access. The BMC’s education department is implementing novel ways to connect with children without access to online learning with the help of palakmitra and shikshakmitra, who are volunteering teachers and parents, and NGOs. “We are constantly collating data to ensure children’s learning is not disrupted by the pandemic restrictions. With the current conditions, the focus is to connect with maximum number of students in whichever way possible,” said Mahesh Palkar, education officer at the BMC.

37,292 kids left city
“However, we have still not been able to connect with around 1,700 students for various reasons, like wrong or changed contact number, migration or changed address,” Palkar added. During the pandemic, 37,292 children migrated from the city, but the department was able to connect with 22,072 of them through different modes. As many as 12,803 parents, 9,483 students, 5,140 teachers and 978 NGOs are participating in the BMC’s schemes to ensure children continue their studies till schools reopen in the city.

The data also shows 2,61,564 students are attending classes via zoom, while 2,05,352 attend their online session via Google meet. Other small-scale mediums include Jio Meet, Team Meet, WebEx. Students, who are not directly connected to online class, remain in touch with their studies through other modes, like WhatsApp that is being used to 4,04,962 users, followed by Telegram with 1,51,482 children. Other lesser used mediums are Google class (77,082) and messenger (12,044).

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