The economic and educational topsy turvy has been set in motion by the novel coronavirus. As normal life stumbles, the economy meets a regular fall and educational institutions are on the verge of a zero academic year. Though private schools and colleges are considerably affected by this situation, the government schools face even more problems.

First and foremost, the students in government schools nowadays are from poor backgrounds. Secondly most of the government schools with an average strength are located in the rural areas. There is a higher probability of them not having access to smartphones and laptops. In rural areas,the range of internet connectivity is unpredictable and cannot be taken into account. The parents of the students who are uneducated will have a hard time helping the students with their studies. The students won't have sufficient help and proper education. With unemployment, daily wagers are finding it hard to manage the basic needs of their family. So the students from those houses naturally find themselves a job for food. Earlier the government schools provided them free lunch through the ‘mathiya unavu’ scheme introduced by the then chief minister of Tamil Nadu Kamaraj.

The major problem teachers of government schools will face is getting familiar with the technology. The teachers are not trained in handling classes online. These online classes are not a possibility for government schools, hence the introduction of classes through cable channels.The aspect in question is whether the students getting education through cable channels actually understand what is taught? The classes taught through these are in no way interactive so the teachers will never know whether the students actually understood it and also even if the students have doubts, they cannot clarify them.

Some families are poverty stricken so they wouldn’t have a television in their house. Students from such families know not what to do. We have already lost a girl’s life in Kerala due to this problem. The class 9 girl set herself ablaze on the first of June 2020 after she missed online classes because her family couldn’t afford a television or a mobile phone for her online class (Source : The New Indian Express 2nd June 2020). A 10 year old boy from Cuddalore district Tamil Nadu, hung himself to death on 29th July 2020 for the same reason of unavailability of facilities for online classes ( Source : Bangalore Mirror, Aug 1,2020) Another class 10 boy from Aandipatti, committed suicide on 19th August 2020 because he couldn’t understand the online classes.( Source : Sathiyam News August 19,2020).

We are starting to lose the lives of students which shows the sad reality of the impact of Covid19.