With no estimates on when schools across India could potentially reopen after being shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic, online classes are being conducted by many educational institutions. A survey conducted by LocalCircles, a leading community social media platform, suggests that parents actually want children to spend more time on online classes.
The survey, which received 21,332 votes from 239 districts of the country, sought the opinion of parents on the guidelines of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD). The guidelines state that children in pre-primary school have a screen time limit of 30 minutes, followed by Classes 1 to 8 at 1.5 hours and Classes 9 to 12 at 3 hours.
In their response, 29% of parents said that the government's proposal was appropriate, while 69% of parents opposed the screen time limits for online classes.
"Around 18% of all parents said that the daily limit for Classes 9-12 should be five hours, Classes 6-8 at four hours, Classes 1-5 at three hours and Pre-Primary at one hour. 31% said the daily limit for Classes 9-12 should be four hours, Classes 6-8 at three hours, Classes 1-5 at two hours and Pre-Primary at one hour," TwoCircles said in a press note.
"Around 7% of parents said that the daily limit for Classes 9-12 should be three hours, Classes 6-8 at 2.5 hours, Classes 1-5 at two hours and Pre-Primary at one hour. Around 13% said that the daily limit for Classes 9-12 should be three hours, Classes 6-8 at 2.5 hours, Classes 1-5 at 1.5 hours and Pre-Primary at 30 minutes," it added.
In a letter to Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal, Sachin Taparia, the founder, chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of LocalCircles said that the organisation had been "very active over the years in ensuring that the collective opinion of parents on school fee increases, safety, school curriculum, online classes and other related issues reaches government policy makers."
The survey found that 49% of all parents want the screen time limit for Classes 9-12 to be higher than the proposed three hours. For Classes 6-8, 69% of parents wanted it to be higher than the stipulated three hours. Around 56% of parents wanted the screen time limit for Classes 1-5 raised, while the figure is 56% for pre-primary school children as well.
"Parents have proposed that a new category be created for class 6-8 i.e. middle school as the learning and curriculum is quite different from primary school. Also, many parents believe that online classes will be continuing for quite some time given the COVID-19 situation and hence it is important that the screen time limits are necessary," the letter to the union minister stated.
"Parents have also expressed that there is a need to have zero screen time after online classes are over by better management of assignments from school and teachers and their submission from children," it added.