Students in Odisha's Ganjam unable to attend online classes due to lack of facilities

Students from poor tribal households in Ganjam, Odisha, find it difficult to attend online lessons since many of them don't have access to smartphones or face network problems. According to Kanhucharan Nayak, a teacher in Odisha's Mayurbhanj district, most tribal families lack the financial means to purchase a mobile phone, and those who do are unable to access the internet.

In an interview with ANI, Nayak said, "Both life and livelihoods of poor tribal villagers have been affected by the epidemic. It is also affecting the education of children. The schools are closed due to the pandemic and the government has decided to educate children online. However, it has failed miserably due to poverty, shortage of mobile phones, and network problems." She went on to add, "Students are suffering from the non-availability of networks. The children are walking 1 to 3 kilometres to search the network. Even some of them are climbing mountains and trees."

A student of class 5 said, "I have no smartphone. There are around 5-6 children who are using one mobile phone. We have to walk for 1-3 km due to network issues."

"After inquiry, I called local sarpanch and BDO and decided that some educational videos will be downloaded through the cable operator and we will arrange some LED TV for the students in a separate place," said Abinash Satpathy, a block education officer in the state of Ganjam.

Partial lockdown till July 16

The state administration said on Wednesday that the "partial lockdown" will be extended until July 16, with schools, colleges, malls, cinema halls, and houses of worship remaining shuttered. A night curfew will be imposed across the state from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., owing to concerns over a high test positive rate (TPR) in ten coastal districts.
Twenty districts with a test positivity percentage of less than 5% (category A) will receive more relaxations in the graded unlocking beginning Thursday than the remaining ten districts (category B). Bhubaneswar is under category B, as are Cuttack, Puri, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Kendrapada, Mayurbhanj, and Nayagarh.

In the ten category B districts, the weekend shutdown will continue. In category A, bus transportation will be permitted, but not in category B.