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states boast a 100 percent electrification even entering the sphere of higher
status (Ministry of Power, Annual report education which would be a detrimental
20-21). However, the reliability and loss to their earning capacity and
stability of the connection is debatable. standard of living.

8. Dropouts 9. Practical Learning
The rural poor often tend to assign With the advent of online learning,
an “economic value” to children and several courses which involve
view them as a source of labour and application-based pedagogies have
income (Corbridge & Watson, 1985). experienced a setback. Courses such
The lockdown which was initiated due as Master of Business Administration
to the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in (MBA), Masters in Management
scores of migrants losing their jobs and Studies (MMS), Hotel Management
returning back to their villages. This loss and Entrepreneurship involve several
of income exacerbated by their return to simulations, real-world immersion and
the villages with no permanent source experiential approaches. While online
of livelihood in sight could result in simulations exist for this purpose, it
many children dropping out of schools is not an adequate replacement for
and colleges. Additionally, students may the authentic experience. Years of
be forced to stop their studies in order pedagogy development, curriculum
to leverage their earning capacity and enhancement with respect to
contribute to the household functioning simulations and experimentation is
due to the increased opportunity cost of needed in order to effectively transition
continuing their studies (Bharadwaj et quality online education in these fields
al., 2020). Research shows that school (Liguori, & Winkler, 2020). Additionally,
dropout rates in India have always been such courses involve internships as part
a source of worry and these students of their curriculum in order to enhance
have been pushed out of the system the students’ competencies in the real-
owing to a variety of reasons such world, which cannot be effectively
as poverty, cost of education, poor experienced online. A critical aspect of
quality of education and child labour. higher education includes moulding
Temporary interruption in schooling, students to work as a group, enhance
among the poor, has frequently leadership capabilities and improve
culminated in permanently dropping out their participation in collaborative
of the education system (Reddy & Sinha, experiments and projects. With the
2010). Amidst the lockdown-induced advent of online learning this aspect of
closure of educational institutions and their education has vastly suffered.
the transition to online learning, several However, it must be acknowledged that
children have dropped out of schools online education has its fair share of
due to financial constraints resulting merits as well.
from the parents losing their jobs or
experiencing a pay cut. This would Merits of Online Learning
ultimately result in these children not
1. Infrastructure

112 Indian Journal of Educational Technology
Volume 3, Issue 2, July 2021