Safeguarding Generations Of Learning Within A Generation

Education is a leveller. It has the power to uplift, and the ability to provide opportunities unlike anything else. It can broaden one’s horizons and give individuals the confidence to stand on their feet. Perhaps, on some level, education is also taken for granted - because most often its real value is felt only by those who do not receive it. Invariably, most of the time, those people are more likely to be young girls. The inequality in the education of girls and boys is reflected in the pandemic’s effect on learning too.  According to a Right to Education Forum policy brief, ten million girls in India could drop out of secondary school due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Where does the education of girls stand?

According to one UN  statistic, girls have a 42% lower probability of being educated at the elementary level than boys in India’s poorest districts. What is concerning is that a gender gap as early as elementary or primary school deprives girls of the opportunity to learn basic skills let alone reach their full potential - an area, by the way, where there isn’t any difference between genders.

Data from the National Achievement Survey conducted in 2017 showed that girls and boys in elementary and secondary classes learn at the same level across the country. In many subjects, their average test scores are virtually similar as well. However, where the gender gap arises is in the number of years of education they receive. By Class 8 almost twice the number of girls drop out of the school system due to mounting pressure to help with domestic responsibilities. The situation deteriorates from there. One of the government’s most recent surveys puts girls’ dropout rates in secondary school at 17.3% . 

A situation that has been precarious to start with, has been made worse by the pandemic and its effect on learning. The 2021 UN Sustainable Development Report stated that the COVID-19 pandemic has wiped out 20 years of gains in ensuring equity in education. 

This is a generational loss in learning that no one saw coming.

How can we bridge the gap?

The education inequality crisis is a trilemma involving cost, quality and scale. High-quality education at a massive scale involves a high cost. One way in which we are working towards solving this at BYJU’S is through Education for All (EFA), our social initiative. Launched 15 months ago,  EFA has a simple yet powerful mission- To provide high-quality digital education content at zero cost and scale that across the country. 

Most of our students in EFA were onboarded in the last 12 months. When we started, we set a target of reaching 5 million students by 2025. The response has been phenomenal and, we have already helped 3.4 million students within a year. We have now revised our target to reach 10 million students by the year 2025.  

Educating girls from underserved communities is a major objective for us at EFA as well. The fourth, often invisible prong to inequality in access to education, especially for girls, are socio-cultural hurdles. For families with limited resources, educating girls is often not a priority. This is where in particular our NGO partners, like the Laadli Foundation and the Nirnayam Trust to name a few, have been doing ground-breaking work. With their lead, we have made a concerted effort to involve girls in our learning programmes. Currently, girls make up 50% of EFA students. We place a premium on collaborating with organisations that focus on out-of-school girls. 

So far, we have been able to reintroduce young girls from rural areas and urban slums, including those with physical disabilities, to learning.

Technology possesses the answer to bridging the large physical inequalities in access to education. And when coupled with talented people on the ground, we can reach further to the grassroots to overcome some of the social-economic hurdles that stop children from reaching their full potential. One way in which you can make a change too is by nominating girls from underserved communities to the Education for All program. We will educate them on BYJU’S for free. You can drop in a mail to educationforall@byjus.com with the details of the nominee.

I believe as technologies evolve, education will become more attainable and inclusive than ever before. We have a long way to go, and it's only the right intent and conscientious effort that can make a positive difference. Equal classrooms today are key to building an equitable tomorrow.