A 14-year-old girl in India committed suicide on the first day of her new school term as she could not afford a device needed for online classes.
Devika Balakrishnan was the daughter of a daily wage labor. Having coming from a poor family means she was unable to buy expensive devices to attend classes that would be conducted online in the coming semester.
Since India’s nationwide lockdown in March to stop the spread of the coronavirus, schools have been shut across the country. This has prompted classes to be moved and conducted online.
Although e-learning may sound easy to some students, there are also others are very unlikely to have access to education with this teaching method.
Photo source: Forbes
Apparently, Devika was one of the unfortunate students and she decided to end her life.
Devika was found dead near the family home on Monday.
Her death sparked protests among student activists in all of the southern state of Kerala where she was from, highlighting the inequalities of the lockdown and accusing the government of failing to check whether all students could afford to attend online classes.
This is indeed a tragedy. Our deepest condolences to Devika’s family and friends. Let’s just hope the government can solve the problem and all students would be able to attend all classes.
Source: The Straits Times
Cover photo: Aljazeera || Visual Stock
