About 40 per cent of children in grades I-II have no access to a smartphone despite having one at home, as opposed to 17 per cent of children in grades IX or higher. 
About 40 per cent of children in grades I-II have no access to a smartphone despite having one at home, as opposed to 17 per cent of children in grades IX or higher.
The penetration of smartphones in children's households has doubled from 29.6 per cent in 2018 to 63.7 per cent in 2021. This increase did not translate to access to smartphones for online studying, found Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2021.
At least 27.9 per cent of households in rural India bought a new smartphone for their children's education this year. Despite having at least one smartphone at home, children could not use it for online education. About 67.6 per cent of school children have at least one smartphone at home, but it was not accessible for online studying to 26.1 per cent of them.
After the Covid-19 pandemic hit India last year, access to smartphones became important for education and forced schooling to shift online. The ASER survey was conducted in September 2021 and looked at the status of school education in rural areas. The survey covered 76,706 households, 75,234 children between 5 and 16, and teachers and staff from 7,300 government schools across 25 states and three Union Territories.
Does parents' education level have an impact on children's online education? The ASER report found complex answers to this question. Remarkably, parents in the 'low' education category bought new smartphones for their children amid the pandemic. Moreover, parents with both 'low' and 'higher' levels of education bought new smartphones for their child's education in 2021 -- 27 per cent and 30 per cent, respectively.
However, the study found that as parents' education level increases, the likelihood that the household has a smartphone also increases. "In 2021, over 80 per cent of children with parents who had studied at least till Class 9 had a smartphone available at home, as compared to just over 50% of children whose parents had studied till Class 5 or less," it stated.
The study further found that more children in higher classes have access to smartphones than children in lower grades. About 40 per cent of children in grades I-II have no access to a smartphone despite having one at home, as opposed to 17 per cent of children in grades IX or higher.
Kerala recorded the highest number of enrolled students with smartphone availability at home, at 97.5 per cent, followed by 95.6 per cent in Himachal Pradesh and 92.9 per cent in Manipur and Nagaland 89.9 per cent in Punjab. In Bihar, 54.4 per cent of the surveyed students had smartphones at home. In West Bengal, the figure was 58.4 per cent and in Uttar Pradesh, it was 58.9 per cent.
Bihar (53.8 %) has the highest percentage of students who did not have access to a smartphone despite a device being available at home followed by West Bengal (46.5% ), Uttar Pradesh (34.3 %) and Rajasthan (33.4%).
The survey found an increase in smartphone access among students irrespective of the type of school they were enrolled in. "However, still more children in private schools have a smartphone at home (79%) as opposed to kids going to government schools (63.7%)," the report stated.
The 2021 ASER survey only looked at households with mobile phones, which might have excluded some of the poorest families in rural areas.
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