More than 65 per cent of students enrolled in Government-run schools across the State do not have access to online classes, officials from the school education and literacy department said on Saturday.

“Around 42 lakh students are enrolled in Government schools across the State and only 14 lakh of them are attending online classes over WhatsApp,” said State Programme Officer for quality education, Abhinav Kumar. The reason Kumar cited for the poor figures was the lack of access to smartphones in households, especially in rural areas.

State launched the Digi Sath initiative, which used WhatsApp as a platform for imparting lessons to students online during the lockdown. Students can also access classes on Doordarshan.

Kumar said that around 55 per cent students were accessing study material through television. The education department has also started using YouTube channels for imparting lessons to school students here. “The response to TV is the best as around 67 per cent households in Jharkhand have television sets,” Kumar added.

A third party assessment is being done to find out how many students are availing benefits of digital classes and the report is likely to be available by the end of July, an official from the school education and literacy department said.

Principal of Rajkiya Madhya Vidyalaya Dangwar in Palamu, Rameshwar Mehta, said that many students in villages of Hussainabad did not even have access to televisions, and therefore, they could not benefit from tutorials telecasted on DD channels.

As many as 499 children are enrolled in Mehta’s school, but less than 100 of them have smartphones at home, he said. Rajesh Kumar, the principal of Middle School Hussainabad said that many students sell vegetables and samosas to eke out a living here. “How do you expect them to have smartphones?” he asked.