Almost 70 percent of rural parents who have given smartphones to their kids say it has boosted their child’s interest in studies, says a survey conducted by DIU, a collaboration between TRI and Sambodhi Research.
Urban parents may be grappling with deciding how much screen time is too much for their children but access to smartphones is certainly working out as a welcome addition to the lives of village kids across India, particularly in education. As many as 68 percent of the rural parents who provided access to smartphones to their children believe that there has been greater interest in education after the introduction of mobiles in their kid’s life, according to the report of a recent survey conducted by the Development Intelligence Unit, a collaboration between Transforming Rural India and Sambodhi Research Pvt. Ltd.
“The usage of smartphones among schoolchildren plays a big role in facilitating their education, with the devices offering a wealth of educational resources, interactive learning applications and access to online study materials,” the report said, adding that children are hence equipped with opportunities for self-directed learning and skill development. The practice, initiated during the Covid-19 pandemic, has continued to show results.
The survey, which included responses from 6,229 rural parents across 20 states in India, found that 49.3 percent of children aged between 6 and 16 years have access to smartphones. A higher percentage of children from advanced classes possess such access, with the figures being over 58 percent for kids in class 8 and above as compared to 42 percent for those studying in classes 1 to 3.
According to the report, smartphone usage among children has been well distributed across all income groups. While children of non-earners and low-income parents have relatively lower access to smartphones at 37.7 percent and 45.9 percent, respectively, the disparity is not significantly pronounced compared to affluent families, which showed a corresponding figure of 50 percent.
The survey also investigated the time spent on smartphones by children. Overall, nearly 73 percent of children were seen to be utilising smartphones for less than 2 hours daily. Older children tend to spend more time on their phones, with 25.4 percent of children in class 8 and above dedicating 2 to 4 hours, in contrast to 16.8 percent of children in classes 1 to 3.
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Most children used smartphones primarily for entertainment purposes, such as playing games (77 percent), downloading and watching movies (57 percent), and listening to songs (47 percent). However, their role in education was shown to be noteworthy too. Almost 35 percent of the children surveyed said they rely on their smartphones to access study materials, while about 20 percent of the participants highlighted that smartphones are utilised for educational purposes through online tutorials.
The survey also studied parents’ engagement with their children regarding education. The respondent parents were asked about the supervision of their child’s education, the frequency of parents’ discussions with their children about their studies, and the extent of engagement in extra-curricular activities.
It was observed that a majority of children (62.5 percent) are under the supervision of their mothers when it comes to their studies, while 49 percent are supervised by their fathers. Over 38 percent of parents opt for private tutors to further enhance their child’s education. These patterns were found to be different among parents with varying educational backgrounds. For children of parents who never went to school, supervision was often handled by people other than their mother and father, such as an elder sibling (34.7 percent), anganwadi workers (10.8 percent), or community teachers (11.8 percent). Among the children whose parents had finished high school, 76 percent of them were supervised by their mothers, while 61 percent were supervised by their fathers.
Rural parents were found to be actively engaging in discussions about their children’s schooling. According to the survey findings, 73 percent of parents regularly have conversations with their children regarding their education, either on a consistent basis or at least 3-4 times a week. On average, about 40 percent of parents across different income groups regularly ask their children about their education received in school, as compared to 60 percent of non-earners.
Among parents who never went to school, 28.7 percent regularly inquire about school education, while 25.1 percent rarely or never do so. In contrast, 46.3 percent of parents with education above higher secondary actively follow up on their child’s education regularly, with only 4 percent rarely engaging in their child’s education.
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The lead image at the top shows a group of schoolgirls busy with a mobile phone (Photo from Shutterstock)
Pallavi Srivastava is Associate Director, Content, at Village Square.
