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GDP Fact Check Refutes Government Claim to Provide Free Laptops to Students
New Delhi:
Amid the current Covid crisis and schools and colleges going virtual, some false allegations are circulating online that the government will provide free laptops to bridge the digital divide. The government fact-checker, Press Information Bureau (PIB), refuted a claim today, August 3, regarding the provision of free laptops to students to support virtual learning.
According to the claim, the Department of Education has a distribution schedule for laptops to distribute to families to support virtual learning. The GDP fact-checker debunked this claim and clarified that no such announcement had been made.
GDP took to Twitter and said: “A post with a link claims that India’s Ministry of Education will provide free laptops to all people to support virtual learning amid the ‘COVID-19 epidemic. “
“PIBFactCheck: This claim is false,” he added.
A message with a link claims that @EduMinOfIndia provide free laptops to everyone to support virtual learning in the midst of # COVID-19[FEMALE[FEMININE epidemic#PIBFactCheck:
â–¶ ï¸This complaint is #FALSE
â–¶ ï¸Do not forward such messages
â–¶ ï¸Never disclose personal information on these sites pic.twitter.com/nNg2Gb7IIl– GDP fact check (@PIBFactCheck) August 3, 2021
Earlier Monday, August 2, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, in a written response to a question posed in the Lower House, said that more than 2.96 crore of students in 24 states did not had no access to digital devices, with Bihar reporting the highest number. In terms of absolute numbers, Bihar has the highest number of such students at 1.43 crore, followed by Jharkhand (35.52 lakh), Karnataka (31.31 lakh) and Assam (31.31 lakh) , 06 lakh). Uttarakhand has 21 lakh of these children.
Other states with more than 10 lakhs of children without digital devices are Haryana, Odisha and Tamil Nadu, while Kerala has 9.5 lakhs of children in this category, he said. Due to the extended school closures forced by COVID-19, the teaching and learning process has moved online.
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