Anthropological Perspective on Democratizing Education through Mobile Phones in India: A Qualitative Study in Kangra District of Himachal Pradesh, India

 

Avanee Khatri¹*, A.K. Sinha², Sahil Bansal²

¹Research Scholar, Department of Anthropology, Panjab University, Chandigarh

²Professor, Department of Anthropology, Panjab University, Chandigarh

 

ABSTRACT:

Education is often seen as the key agency in development and poverty reduction. Two powerful trends are shaping the future of India’s economic growth and cultural fabric, firstly the increased demand for quality education and secondly, the rise of mobile technology. In a country of 1.2 billion people, 54% are currently below 25 years of age and in need of K-12 schooling and higher education and as many as 47 million people will enter workforce by 2020, according to the India Brand Equity Foundation. India’s illiteracy rate has dropped from 35% to 26% between 2001 and 2011 while the higher education sector is expected to grow at 18% until 2020. Despite these advances, however, much work remains to ensure greater access to higher quality education. This paper investigates the accessibility and attractiveness of different types of ICT applications in education, with special focus on mobile phones applications. Mobile device has arguable impacted India in ways unlikely by any other technology by its penetration to almost entire segment of society. Over 865 million people have mobile phones compared to 80 million personal computers (PC’s) in India. The aim of this study is to scrutinise the process in which ICT-supported methods for learning can be introduced, used and disseminated through mobile education. The study was undertaken in Dharamshala town of Kangra district, Himachal Pradesh on students in age group 13-18, studying in 9^th to 12^th standard in government school. The study attempts to analyse the role of mobile phones in lives of students in present day context, the extent and kind of use. Also, what is their perception of mobile as a method of learning? Interesting findings came out of the study including a huge difference in gender preferences and the perceptions of use among students that can be crucial in policy formation.

 

 

Globalization has been advanced by the rapid development and spread of technology and communication tools across the globe ¹⁷(Stiglitz 2003). Developing countries have become integrated into worldwide production systems, as components of these technological products are manufactured on global assembly lines ⁹(Everett1998). Such developments have increased interest in the potential effects of ICT access on social and political processes, particularly in less democratic, less developed countries ⁴(Avgerou, 2008).

 

Direct foreign investment has been shown to increase with democratization, and such investment, although being dependent on a minimal level of information technology infrastructure ¹(Addison and Heshmati 2004), also effects rapid technological gains ¹¹(Li and Resnick 2003). In turn, the increasing presence of technological innovations carries with it the potential for what might be termed technological democratization. Further, increasingly decentralized, affordable, and mobile technologies may be eliminating the need for substantial infrastructural investments of the type that have led to economic and social transformations in India and elsewhere ⁶(Bowonder et al. 1993), creating the potential for economic development and democratization even without direct foreign investment.

 

India, like any other knowledge economy, depends on the development of its educational sector. Higher education drives the competitiveness and employment generation in India. However, research findings have shown that the overall state of higher education is dismal in the country. There is a severe constraint on the availability of skilled labor ²(Agarwal, 2006). There exist socio-economic, cultural, time and geographical barriers for people who wish to pursue higher education (Bhattacharya and Sharma, 2007). Innovative use of Information and Communication.

 

Technology can potentially solve this problem. Education is the driving force of economic and social development in any country ⁸(Cholin, 2005; Mehta and Kalra, 2006). Considering this, it is necessary to find ways to make education of good quality, accessible and affordable to all, using the latest technology available.

 

The last two decades have witnessed a revolution caused by the rapid development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). ICT has changed the dynamics of various industries as well as influenced the way people interact and work in the society ¹⁸(UNESCO, 2002; ⁵Bhattacharya and Sharma, 2007; ⁷Chandra and Patkar, 2007). Internet usage in home and work place has grown exponentially ¹²(McGorry, 2002). ICT has the potential to remove the barriers that are causing the problems of low rate of education in any country. It can be used as a tool to overcome the issues of cost, less number of teachers, and poor quality of education as well as to overcome time and distance barriers ¹²(McGorry, 2002). India has a billion-pluspopulation and a high proportion of the young and hence it has a large formal education system. The demand for education in developing countries like India has skyrocketed as education is still regarded as an important bridge of social, economic and political mobility ³(Amutabi and Oketch, 2003).

 

The challenges before the education system in India can be said to be of the following nature:

 

Access to education-

There exist infrastructure, socio- economic, linguistic and physical barriers in India for people who wish to access education ⁵(Bhattacharya and Sharma, 2007).

 

Quality of education-

This includes infrastructure, teacher and the processes quality.

 

Resources allocated- Central and State Governments reserve about 3.5% of GDP for education as compared to the 6% that has been aimed ¹⁹(Ministry of Human Resource Development, 2007).

 

There exist drawbacks in general education in India as well as all over the world like lack oflearning materials, teachers, remoteness of education facilities, high dropout rate etc ¹⁸(UNESCO,2002).

 

In the current Information society, there is an emergence of lifelong learners as the shelf life of knowledge and information decreases. People have to access knowledge via ICT to keep pace with the latest developments ¹⁴(Plomp, Pelgrumand Law, 2007). In such a scenario, education, which always plays a critical role in any economic and social growth of a country, becomes even more important. Education not only increases the productive skills of the individual but also his earning power. It gives him a sense of well being as well as capacity to absorb new ideas, increases his social interaction, gives access to improved health and provides several more intangible benefits ¹⁰(Kozma, 2005). The various kinds of ICT products available and having relevance to education, such as teleconferencing, email, audio conferencing, television lessons, radio broadcasts, interactive radio counseling, interactive voice response system, audiocassettes and CD ROMs etc have been used in education for different purposes (¹⁶Sharma, 2003; ¹⁵Sanyal, 2001; ⁵Bhattacharya and Sharma, 2007).

 

When the mobile phone was first introduced into India, it was considered an arrogant and vulgar technology used only by those at the top of society. Today, however, the mobile phone is used across all Indian social classes and is considered highly fashionable. This transformation in perceptions of this technology — and, therefore, its uses can usefully be understood as, simultaneously, the democratization of the mobile telephone. One of the most important factors that made this technology more acceptable in Indian society was its redesign as a material object, undertaken in response to the actual needs and practices of users. Once individual users found their own identities and desires reflected in the mobile telephone, they were far more likely to incorporate this technology into their personal ecologies. Even though mobile telephones are very much the product of large industrial organizations, this case also demonstrates the contribution of users to design of the technological environment that then in turn governs their own behaviors.

 

Mobile Technologies and the Digital Divide

No doubt, the adoption of mobile technologies has been rapid and widespread. Currently, about 85 percent of Indians in age group 18 and older and 75 percent of those 12 to 17 own cellphones. But of those, only 27 percent own smart-phones. In other words, cellphones have become ubiquitous, but smart-phones -- although their growth is explosive simply aren't there yet.This means that mobile technologies serve to both address and to complicate our notions of the "digital divide," the gulf between the Internet technology haves and have-nots. On one hand, mobile phones will increasingly serve as both our gateway to the Internet and as our personal computers. As costs come down, more and more people will have mobile computing devices in their hands. But on the other hand, accessibility and equity remain an issue. Income still dictates cellphone ownership and Internet access. And for many people, accessing the Internet via their phone is their only connection, as they don't have Internet at home.

 

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

The present ethnographic study aims to was undertaken by keeping in mind the following objectives:

 

·        To study the role of mobile phones in lives of students in present day context, the extent and kind of use.

·        To investigate the accessibility and attractiveness of different types of ICT applications in education, with special focus on mobile phones applications.

·        To document students perception of mobile as a method of learning and their expectation from information and communication technology (ICT) as a method of learning.  

 

AREA OF THE STUDY:

The present study was conducted in Dharamshala town of Kangra district, Himachal Pradesh. Dharamsala  (also  Dharamshala) is a city and a municipal council in Kangra district in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. It is the district headquarters. It was formerly known as Bhagsu. The Dalai Lama's residence in McLeod Ganj and the headquarters of Central Tibetan Administration  (the Tibetan government in exile) are in Dharamshala. Dharamshala has an average elevation of 1457 metres (4780 feet), covering an area of almost 8.51 km². Dharamsala is located in the Kangra Valley, in the shadow of the Dhauladhar mountains. The city is divided into two distinct sections. Kotwali Bazaar and the surrounding markets are referred to as "Lower Dharamshala" or just "Dharamshala." Further up the mountain is McLeodGanj separated in between by the village of GanchenKyishong, the home of the Tibetan government-in-exile, which owes to its world famous popularity. Confining to the research objectives, data was collected from state government schools in Dharamshala.There are two H.P Board senior secondary schools in Dharamshala separate for girls and boys. The prime reason for selecting Dharamshala as the area for research is that the town of Dharamshala, is neither urban nor fully rural, it comprises of mixed population. Also, in and around Dharamshala, there exist plenty of rural villages whose population adheres to Dharamshala for their basic needs, especially for the education. Similarly, the aim behind choosing Government schools for present research was that, all the rural population in and around Dharamshaladepend upon these schools for secondary education.

 

METHODOLOGY:

Anthropology is the study of humans, past and present. From the Greek anthropos (human) and logia (study), the word anthropology itself tells us it is the field that seeks to understand humankind, from the beginnings millions of years ago up to the present day. Anthropology considers how people's behaviors changes over time, and how people and seemingly dissimilar cultures are different and the same. The present study explores the factors feasible for mobile phones as potential source of education in the digitized world taking into account the anthropological perspectives. The perspective of anthropology helps in better understanding of culture, social organizations, class, socio-economic status and many others, which helps in tracing the ground realities. For the present study, the most important approach of Anthropology, Ethnography was used as the methodology to pursue research, which included immersion in the area and community of study. In this present research field work was conducted for a period of four months in the area of study. Students in age group 13 to 18 were interviewed studying in classes’ 9^th to 12^th. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to collect data. Ethnographic tools including in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and case studies were broadly used to collect data from students, teachers and officials concerned with education policy implementation. Qualitative research was done to understand the information and educational requirements of 13 to 18 year olds.  Along with primary research, a range of published literature in the field of education and use of the Internet and mobile technologies in education were reviewed.  An effort was made to build rapport with teachers, students and officials. Also, an attempt was made to meet the respondents in their informal settings apart from the formal school environment, to be one with them for better understanding of their perspectives and needs.

 

ANALYSIS:

The study inquired into the shortcomings of the existing schooling model in meeting their educational needs. With Ethnographic observation and immersion, time was spent with the target subjects (school students) to see and hear them in their own environments, at home and at work, to fully experience their daily lives as they went about it. It was crucial to be in the midst of the key sites and scenes of their lives in order to understand their constraints, what they found meaningful, experience the other little seemingly unimportant nuances of their lives and how they went about handling them. Direct interviews and surveys were done to gather factual information regarding their mobile or other information communication technology usage patterns and their beliefs and perceptions regarding use of mobile phones as source of learning. The data gathered was analysed to find patterns in subjects’s lives with regards to their information needs and their current ways and challenges in meeting those requirements.

 

FINDINGS AND INTERPRETATIONS:

The ethnographic and secondary research highlighted some key bottlenecks in the educational needs of the target subjects. Along with socio-economic factors, the traditional education system, language and inherent beliefs formed the backbone of majority of these causes. Few of the reasons were:

 

·        High cost of good quality private schools: education for all is the topmost agenda of Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development in India. Still the literacy rate in India especially in the rural population is quiet low. This target population for this study was also selected was rural, as literacy rate in this population has always been an issue of worry. From the research, it was found that the major reason for low literacy in this population was their poor socio-economic status. The students interviewed for present research belonged to labor class, whose monthly income was average 30 to 50$ respectively. Hence, the option for education most suitable for them is government schools, where the fee structure is minimal, also free till standard 8 and the government perks like mid-day meals, free books and uniforms are available in government schools. But, the quality of education in these schools is very low, for eg. A student of 10^th grade one studying in private school and the other studying in government school, have altogether different curriculums, knowledge, exposure. A private school student is well versed in all the subjects and English language plus he is better trained to face the competitive world. This creates an educational divide.

·        Current forms of teaching, poor infrastructure, quality of education, redundant course structure makes education unattractive to them: when it comes to government initiatives, two most important factors for its success are transparency and proper administration. From the study it was found that most of the government initiatives and funding didn’t reach the school administration properly. Also, from the interviews it came out, the students themselves did not find education important. Belonging to the low socio-economic status, they didn’t have any ambitions for career. For eg. One of the respondent wanted to be a priest, because his fathers younger brother is a priest by profession and earns around 100 to 150 $ which he found fascinating. So, he said after completing 12^th grade, he would learn from him for sometime so that he also gets to be like him. The children lacked the motivation to study owing to their perceived notion of non-usefulness of education as a factor in career making.

·        Massive gap in pupil to teacher ratio: the schools that were studied in this study had student strength around 1500 whereas the teacher’s strength was 15. It is very well clear that there exist a massive gap in pupil to teacher ratio. This led to a lot of pressure on teachers, who on interviewing revealed, it was very difficult for them to teach all the classes and take care of all students, as they had to do the administrative work also, which included maintaining registers and records which took most of their time.

 

Other important facts and barriers that came forward from analyzing the research are that, lot of children have to start working at a very early age to support their families, leaving no time to attend schools. Also, there is a huge gap between what is taught in schools and the knowledge these children need to survive in the real world. These children need specific skills in their field of work, which is missing in the training they receive at school. Cost and time spent in school doesn’t have as much value as working in that time does. Social systems make learning for young girls even more difficult. In a family, boy’s education is given higher priority over a girl’s. A girl’s personal safety is another concern for not allowing her to go out and attend school.

 

Gender differences existed in the possession of mobile phones, where mostly the boys of age 14 and above possessed mobile phones. Girls having mobile phones were not considered of good character.The respondents belonged to low income group, so the mobile phones they possessed were second hand handsets of motorola, nokia and samsung.Of all the respondents only 40% of the students possessed smartphone features in their handsets.Almost every respondent had email made by their school computer teacher, but hardly any of them remebered it or have used it ever.Among social networking sites, awareness about facebook was the highest with most of the respondents having a facebookaccount, which they got made from a local internet café at the cost of rupee 10 (0.157 $ approx..   For students who possessed mobile phones, it was indispensable part of their lives, which has taken a place of their friends. For them its their only source of entertainment and very valuable.

 

But when it comes to mobile as source of knowledge, majority of respondents said it can be good source of learning but it is difficult to achieve. One of respondent said: “mobile phone se padhaiacha to hai par kaisemumkinhoga, abhitak school mai to computer ache se sikhatenai, mobile maipadhaikaisedaldenge”

(English translation: education through mobile phones sounds good, but its impossible to achieve it considering the present status of computer education in school where hardly anyone teaches computer)

 

One respondent who was a topper in 10^th grade was grappling as the government and school administration promised her an Aakash tablet on achieving first position, but there has been no mention of this ever although she turned to grade 12^th this year, hence she replied:  “government jo wade kartihai wo kahanni bhayejate hai, sabbatein bas paper maihotihai, hum gareeb logon k sathase hi hotahai”

 

(English translation: She meant, promises which government make are false, its only in papers, they don’t consider us because we are poor.)

 

She also lamented and narrated her desires, which she had made when she was promised an Aakash tablet. Her father is part time laborers so can’t afford to provide her the latest technology.

 

CONCLUSION:

The Internet based approach to education comes with several challenges. Hardware cost for the Internet enabled devices is still high, though the government of India has announced subsidized $35 Aakash tablet for students, it is still struggling to meet the technical specification at the time of writing this paper. Recurring cost of broadband usage is still unaffordable by a large section of this economic segment. India has 216 different languages, which makes mass accessibility of information a concern. Learning through mobile phones is a next level; firstly children need to be well versed with computer and Internet skills. Lastly, the major impact that can have on the lives of rural children is through school education. So, it is important to revise the present curriculum for schools and envisage more of ICT enabled teaching and learning to make these left out lot competent enough to face the world in future.

 

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