More than 57 percent of children in the age group of fourteen to sixteen years use smartphones for educational purposes, while 76 percent of children use it for social media. This information has been revealed in the annual education status report (ASER). This report states that more than 82 percent of children of the said age group know how to use smartphones. At the same time, boys have more smartphones than girls.
What is ASER?
Explain that the annual education status report (ASER) 2024 is a nationwide rural domestic survey, under which a survey was conducted on the basis of talks with 6,49,491 children in 17,997 villages of 605 districts of the country. A local organization or institution conducted a survey in every district with the survey in collaboration with the NGO ‘Pratham’. Significantly, a section on digital literacy was first included in the nationwide domestic survey, in which children in the age group of 14-16 were focused. This included the questions asked on the access, ownership and use of the smartphone as well as a personal evaluation of some basic digital skills.
This thing revealed in the report
The report said, “82.2 percent of children in the age group of 14-16 know how to use smartphones. Of these, 57 percent said that he used it for educational activity last week, while 76 percent said that he used it for social media during this period. Although the use of smartphones for educational activities was equal among girls and boys, but the possibility of girls using social media was less than that of boys. 78.8 percent of these boys were found using social media, while the girls’ figure was 73.4 percent.
Which state children use smartphones the most?
According to the report, Kerala is at the forefront of using smartphones, where more than 80 percent of children said that they use smartphones for educational activities and more than 90 percent of children use it for social media. ASER found that children in the age of 14-16 years have less number of smartphones, but it increases with aging. Of the children using smartphones, 37 percent of 14 years and 37.8 percent children aged 16 years said that they have their own phones. In addition, there is a major sexual difference in smartphone ownership. 36.2 percent of the boys said that they have their own smartphone, while 26.9 percent of the girls said that they have their own smartphone. This gender difference was seen in all states.
Smartphone is more used or normal phone?
According to the report, in 2018, about 90 percent of rural families had ordinary mobile phones and 36 percent had smartphones. In 2022, the number of families with smartphones increased to more than 74 percent and this year it has increased to 84 percent. If the children in the age group of 14-16 years using smartphones are seen, then the number of such children is about 31 percent, which was just 19 % last year.
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