Virtual School- The Rural Tool

In your journey through small town tales of India you might have crossed two small mischievous boys who despised the very thought of getting up in the morning and heading to school. Remember Swamy- The Dennis of Malgudi? He along with his friends roamed about the village to bunk classes whenever possible. Another one was Chiku from the popular movie, Swades, who made excuses of stomach aches to skip school. But then again, haven’t we all?

Both Chiku and Swamy have mirrored one of the problems that education in India faces. Like them, many children in India do not want to go to school. Actually the biggest challenge lies in rural and backward India, where attending school is not just a matter of choice but is governed by several factors like lack of educational infrastructure, poverty, illiteracy and ignorant attitude of people towards education. Therefore we need to implement a solution that will combat all these issues at the same time. One tool that promises to help is Virtual School.

As the term reads, a virtual school is an online institution that imparts education through online methods. This is like bringing the school home rather than having to go to school physically every day. All you need is access to the internet and with the digital divide in India decreasing every day, this method seems to be the ‘real deal’. Even the government has introduced certain programs that promote virtual schools and online education model. This is because the government recognises the deficit in teaching talent and infrastructure. 

Virtual schools hold several advantages, including not being required to attend and travel to face-to-face classes and the integration of digital media. Virtual schools also give a student the opportunity to stay in school when traditional schools will no longer accept them.  In this way it really helps the purpose of providing education to all. This method of schooling can be adopted in case of extensive absences due to medical reasons. In rural India where sending the girl child to school is a phenomenon to be thought about twice, virtual school proposes to be a great help in bringing gender equality. Virtual schools can be considered a great equalizer, as these schools can make education accessible to non-traditional students. Additionally, students with physical disabilities or transportation issues may find that they are able to succeed in virtual school without the burden of getting to a physical location for schooling.

Another factor that leads to illiteracy in rural India is the priority of the farmer. Think about it, if you are a farmer who has to work day and night on his land to harvest the crop, will you have the time or energy to go to the distant village school. Would you even consider it a necessity? Students who have job and family obligations, which can limit the time spent in the classroom, are able to attend virtual schools at any time of day. For parents returning to school, this is an option which allows them to fit schooling into their busy schedule. Virtual schooling gives the unskilled ‘desi’ a real chance of building upon his twenty-first century skills which include global awareness, computer literacy, self-directed learning, online communications and so on.

Virtual schooling may sound amusing to us but the reality of rural literacy raises grim concern which can be addressed only by this technique, making it the most important agent in the progress of our nation.
http://unilrn.com

Let’s just hope that Swamy and Chiku make the most of it.