E-Learning in Rural Areas: Opportunities, Challenges, and Future Directions

Abstract

There have been many challenges regarding the education of students in rural areas, recently there has been a change in this and children in rural areas are studying up to 10th-12th. Still, efforts are being made at the government level to overcome all these challenges such as lack of infrastructure, untrained teachers, poverty and language barrier. Mid-day meals are provided in government schools under the Mid-Day Meal Scheme, uniforms and books are provided free of cost. Due to free and compulsory education under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, children in rural areas are also studying, but when the Corona wave came to us five years ago, the whole world came to a standstill and online education had to be considered in India as well, since then everyone has been asking this question, will it be successful if we want to provide online education in our country, especially in rural areas, like other countries? Of course, during the Corona period, education was provided to some extent through various apps using the parents' mobile phones, but there were many obstacles in that too.

            A situation had arisen where it posed a threat not only to the educational development of children but also to their social development.  It affected both teachers and students, but if we want to bring development at all levels in our country, and if we want to take our students to the global level, and if we want to keep our children in different competitions, it is necessary to consider online education along with formal education. It is certainly necessary to provide some options of online education for new challenges and to keep rural students in the era of competition, which has been considered in this research paper.