What happened to pen, paper, scissors?

While a meme of a boy unable to write coherently because he forgot to hold a pen in the lockdown is worthy of a laugh, parents say that the forced switch to electronic paraphernalia in the pandemic has disrupted finances

Last year, Kandivli resident Samruddhi Bhat bought a tablet costing Rs 25,000 for her six-year-old son, Shiv, as a birthday gift. It was a purchase that she wasn’t particularly in favour of. “As a parent, I’m not gadget-friendly. We don’t have a laptop at home; just a desktop. My daughter, Reva, has an iPad, but we would always regulate the hours she spent with it,” she says. Her son, who is currently in Class I, would be allowed to play on the phone only on Saturdays for a stipulated time. Bhat has been compelled to embrace technology after the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated remote education. The investment hasn’t stopped at a tablet, though. She has also had to secure a robust WiFi connection because the phone data is inadequate. “I know of many parents who’ve also had to buy printers, because every now and then you need to take printouts of worksheets.” Bhat still goes to a nearby shop for printouts, or uses her neighbour’s in an emergency. She’ll make do with this arrangement until she no longer can. 

Pari Saathi, 12, and her brother, Arth, 14, study at a boarding school in Coimbatore. They led a relatively gadget-free life until the lockdown necessitated remote learning

Gone are the days when essential school supplies included pen, notebooks, geometry box and craft  material. Bhat says although they are saving on the cost of commute to the school, uniforms and books, her expenses have shot up by at least 35 per cent. For instance, students are now expected to buy new props used for the virtual PT class. “I don’t remember spending a single penny for her physical education class pre-lockdown. Now, teachers want parents to invest in bean bags, which many of us don’t have at home.” In the initial months of the lockdown, Bhat says parents had requested the school to reduce the fee in the light of most organisations expecting their staff to take a pay cut, because they were still paying the ‘miscellaneous’ costs in the breakup. “But it wasn’t taken into consideration.” 

Samruddhi Bhat with kids, Reva, 10, and Shiv,6, at their residence in Kandivli. Her daughter has an iPad while the son uses a tablet. Pic/Satej Shinde

The stationery industry was poised to rake in about $1.7 billion in sales in 2020 (pre COVID-19 estimates), according to Statista. The downturn has hit the segment hard. Mandeep Dialani is the founder of Social Nomad Designs, which supplies stationery sets to school children. Her sales have dropped by 50 per cent, especially when it comes to notebooks.  “Prior to the pandemic, there would be one notebook for each subject. Since the child is now at home, a single notebook is being used for all subjects. Writing work, too, has decreased.” Dialani says when the lockdown was imposed, the question was whether the same enthusiasm of stuffing a shopping cart full of school supplies in store would translate online. This made sellers like her think of creative ways to sell. “We came up with a lockdown journal so that children could jot down memories from the pandemic and also hone their creative skills, which helped pump up the sales a bit.” Since the opening of the economy, activity books have started moving. Craft supplies are also seeing a slow growth. A noticeable growth in business will only occur in the next academic year, she thinks.

Janaki Pandit with mother Akanksha. The Pandits have opted for two WiFi connections since all members are working/studying from home

To leverage the growing demand for tablets, companies in the segment have started launching new products with larger screens. Samsung launched Galaxy Tab S6 Lite tablet with a 10.4-inch screen and the S-Pen.

Classical dancer Prachi Saathi’s children, Arth, 14, and Pari, 12, study in a residential school in Coimbatore, where they lead a disciplined and relatively gadget-free life. The siblings had to leave the tranquil surroundings of Velliangiri mountains for their Juhu home due to the Coronavirus pandemic last year. “It’s funny how we went from having one common iPad in the house to owning a separate gadget each.” Like Bhat, Saathi agrees that expenditure has shot up. “It’s not just about the laptop, but also the paraphernalia that comes with it. For instance, for seamless video conferencing, you also need good headphones. In fact, my son convinced my husband to buy the latest airpods.” Saathi says it’s a rite of passage for parents of tweens to face the situation when their child decides that s/he must have a cell phone. “We managed to delay this till Class 9, and I think we deserve an award for that, considering that kids as young as five have cellphones of their own.” Saathi says you don’t need books anymore given that study material is in the form of YouTube videos and Google docs. Over the past year, she bought only two textbooks. “Just the other day, my son was showing me a meme of a teenage boy struggling to hold a pen because he had forgotten how to write seamlessly.”

Mandeep Dialani

For some though, traditional stationery continues to be an integral part of their student life. Janaki Pandit, a 16-year-old who studies in an ISC (Indian School Certificate) school in Santa Cruz, is one of them. “It’s just like attending a class, but virtually. I still need to take down notes in a book, then type it out carefully on the computer. Even during our internal assessments, we had to write all our answers in a book and then scan the pages and mail them across.” During the exams, Pandit was expected to keep the phone on as well as the webcam of the laptop, and place them at different angles so that the teachers get a full view of them and the surroundings in which the exam is being taken. This was meant to keep cheaters in check. Pandit currently uses a laptop worth R65,000, which her parents bought during the lockdown. Her mother, Akanksha also got two WiFi connections to avoid frequent disruptions they faced with one. “It was not possible to manage with one connection for my husband, daughter and myself,” says Pandit.  

Janaki says she had it relatively easy given that she’s in Class 11 and there were no additional tuitions. “I could just focus on my regular classes and sign off. Prepping for the board exams next year will be a whole new adventure, though.”

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