Digital Divide & Its Impact on School Education of West Bengal

The wake of COVID-19 pandemic has given rise a major transformation in education system across the country with exceptionally a sudden change in technological domain of knowledge. As a consequence, ICT has acquired an important place in education sector as well as in school education also. But if we pay a glance into the situation & assess how far ICT has its place in school education of West Bengal it is revealed that the real scenario is not convincing. Our schools, mainly Govt. schools of West Bengal are ill-equipped in terms of infrastructure and basic facilities to teach its students digitally. Our teachers are not properly trained enough to implement ICT in education. Poor students don’t have access to smart phones and even if they do net connectivity is poor and content is not available in vernacular languages. There is a lack of digital infrastructure for both the teachers and students and a disparity in internet connection and access to devices. All these creates a discrimination among students in access to education and gives rise of digital divide. The rapid shift to e-learning prompted by the pandemic has resurfaced long-standing issues of inequality and a digital divide that must be addressed by future economic, education and digitization policies of India as well as of West Bengal also.