Digital divide narrowing in 14-18 age group but rising across the gender divide: Survey

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The annual Status of Education Report 2023 released on January 17 has triggered a concern while offering a comforting indication. While the survey conducted among 34,745 youths who live in 28 districts in 26 states has indicated that the digital divide is inching down among those aged 14 to 18 years, it has also revealed that girls are falling behind boys in digital access and tasks.

There is a marked gap in the access to smartphones between boys and girls – while 72.9% males have access to one, the number is a far lower 62% for a girl.

The divide is higher across the gender in terms of owning a smartphone. While 44% of male students have a smartphone, the share is only 20% for females.

The divide is prominent even when it comes to having an email id – 51% males and 30% females have it. But for many merely having an email id means the end of the journey. Only 20% have sent an email so far while the figure is a paltry 9% for girls.

Some of the other highlights of the survey are:

92% of the youths can use a smartphone while 89% have a smartphone at their home. About 80% of the respondents have used smartphones for entertainment purposes like listening to music and watching a movie. About 52% can change a password and an equal share can block a profile. As many as 48% know how to make a profile private. However, only 9% have a computer.

The survey has revealed that access to digital technology is proliferating in rural India. Well over half – 55.7% in fact – are studying arts/humanities subjects. About 36.3% males are expected to enrol for mathematics, science, engineering and technology as opposed to 28.1% for the female students.

Nearly 60% of the students are able to read simple English. But students are staying enrolled in schools for longer times. In 2017, 81% of youngsters spent eight years or more in schools. This figure has climbed up to 84%.

The male-female gap in enrolment has also narrowed down considerably compared to 2017. In 2017, 16% of girls were found to be out of school as compared to 11.9% for boys – the gap being 4.1 percentage points. According to the latest survey, the gap has narrowed down to a mere 0.2 percentage points.

That schooling is rising is also evident from another fact. The share of persons not enrolled in a school/college is rising with age. While it is 32.6% for those aged 18, it is 10.9% for those aged 16 years and 3.9% for 14-year-olds. The survey also felt that they could have started working and, therefore, would not go back to attend classes. But very few, only 5.6%, students chose vocational training.

As many as 86% of the females work at home while the share of male students involved in such work is 66%. Significantly, the survey detected a dip in reading prowess. In 2017, 76.6% of the respondents could read text matter of class II level. In 2023, it fell to 73.6%.

About one-fourth of the respondents could not read class II level text fluently in their regional language. But 76% of the females can read class II level text in their own language compared to 70.9% among the males.

But numerical abilities seem to have gone up slightly. In 2017, 39.5% of the respondents could solve a division sum of class III-IV. The current survey found the ability among 43.3% of the respondents.

But more than half of respondents keep struggling when asked to divide a number of three digits by a single-digit number. 57.3% can read sentences in basic English. Of those who can read it, about 73.5% are aware of their meanings.