Only 25% government schools have access to internet

In at least five states in the country, the internet connectivity falls below 10 percent of the total number of schools. (Image: Reuters).

Only 25 percent government schools of the country have access to internet, the Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan told the Lok Sabha on Monday.

The data was released in response to a question presented in the Lok Sabha regarding usage of ICT in school education in Government and Government aided schools for imparting education in emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic under the New Education Policy.

The data was sourced from Unified District Information System for Education Plus, a database developed by the education ministry, for the year 2021-22.

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As per the response, of the 10,22,386 government schools in the country, only 2,47,000 schools had access to internet.

States with least internet access

In at least five states in the country, the internet connectivity falls below 10 percent of the total number of schools.

In Uttar Pradesh, only 12,074 of the 1.37 lakh schools have internet connections. In Bihar, 4,421 of the 75,558 schools have access to internet. In Odisha, 3,970 of the 49,072 schools have internet connections. In Mizoram, children of only 153 of the 2563 government schools get access to internet. In Assam, only 4,680 of the total 45,490 government schools have access to internet.

States with 100 percent internet access

States including Delhi (2762), Chandigarh (123) and Puducherry (422) were best performers with 100 percent internet access in all government schools.

This was closely followed by Lakshadweep, where 37 of the 38 schools had an internet connection. Meanwhile Kerala too fares well, with 4,738 of 5,010 government schools having access to internet.