Published Paper Details:

The present research study was aimed to explore the educational inequalities faced by Tamang tribal students due to the digital gap, which extends to create learning exclusion. This study adopted qualitative phenomenological research design and conducted in a rural Tamang community in the Darjeeling district. The purposive sampling technique was employed to select 20 secondary school-going students from two blocks, in which 10 students were selected from the Rangli Rangliot block and 10 students were selected from the Jorebunglow-Sukhiapokhri block. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. After collection of qualitative data, the investigator adopted thematic analysis to analyze the data through MAXQDA software. This study revealed that most of the rural tribal students had faced significant challenges in digital learning; they were not aware of online learning and they did not have any digital gadgets to participate in online courses such as NCERT school courses through the SWAYAM platform. On the other hand, some Tamang tribal students who had digital gadgets described their experiences that digital devices are helpful for learning various topics easily, and they positively participate various online courses to upgrade their knowledge. Additionally, students have high performance in their academics due to digital learning. Moreover, this study showed that inadequate digital access and poor digital infrastructure had been creating learning inequalities among rural tribal students.