Author(s): Dr. Seema Rani

Abstract:
Education sector is passing through a very tough and uncertain phase due to Covid 19 and the situation is more complicated in rural areas owning to the crunch of resources. Keeping this in mind, an attempt was made to throw light on various issues and challenges of online education faced by rural children mostly of lower socio-economic status. A sample of 62 students of 2 villages of district Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh was randomly selected and with the help of an open ended questionnaire, their views were collected and analysed. Study divulged that majority of the children of rural areas (77.42%) mentioned network uncertainty as a major obstacle in online education followed by low internet speed (72.58%). Some suggestive measures like free smart phones, need of proper student-teacher interaction, and internet accessibility in villages were also reported by the students and their parents.