Equal Access to Digital Books Across Urban and Remote Regions

There has been a big divide between urban and rural segments always. The range was usually seen in terms of money, infrastructure, resources, etc. During the times of COVID, a big challenge that was seen by both urban and rural was education. How to provide education to children? Some students had board - exams, some were having NEET, and others may be preparing for JEE. All came to a halt, and the biggest educationist figured out the executing solution and how to run institutions without children. Digital education well played a bond between students and institutions.

But access to digital learning was also limited to urban locations. How the people of rural areas manage to access Digital Learning, its cost of application is another issue. Many students in rural areas were devoid of e-learning. Our Government, too, brought Digital books free for all, but due to no access to devices, rural students couldn't avail of these learning facilities. We are talking about schools to get re-open, but what about the course and syllabus loss suffered by these students. It's sheer injustice with students who are also capable of competing with urban students. There must be some ways to provide devices and applications to rural areas too. It is high time to promote and apply digital learning to avoid the ill effects of any other upcoming pandemic. Education should never be stopped and should never be region restricted. There must be equal access to all kinds of digital learning through e-books across urban and remote areas.

Both elders and young in remote regions must be taught how to use devices, open e-books, switch on and off, etc. It will empower the nation as a more significant chunk of people will learn and reach sustainability in education.

Kiara Sharma

Mahaveer Public School