Chinmayee Mishra - UGC Senior Research Fellow doing PhD in Sociology, Utkal University, Odisha, India. Main research pursuit: Vulnerability and resilience of women in natural disasters
Navaneeta Rath - Professor, Department of Sociology, Utkal University, Odisha, India. Main research pursuit: Disaster research (including Covid-۱۹), sociology of vulnerability and environmental sociology

Disasters often lead to disruption and uncertainty in the education system, apart from other disorders that it creates in the social life. In light of the current pandemic Covid-۱۹, we can see the changing nature of risk in the education sector when we compare it with other natural disasters. Owing to the typicality of the situation, e-learning is gaining momentum with a large number of students and teachers turning to digital education. However, there are certain lacunae for which it has not replaced conventional education even after a decade of its presence. The paper tends to analyse the Matthew effect in e-learning which may exacerbate the social-economic achievement gap. Matthew effect as a phenomenon was coined by the sociologist Robert K. Merton which can roughly be interpreted as advantage begets more advantage or accumulation of disadvantages. Through content analysis as the methodology opted for the research it seeks to study various qualitative texts related to digital divide in e-learning during the pandemic. By studying those texts, we tend to find the impact of Mathew effect on the students. The geographical scope of the research is confined to studies from India. It studies how the pandemic has increased the digital divide in India and its impact on the disadvantaged section. With no better alternatives, online learning seems to be the most practical solution as the need of the hour. The effect can widen the digital divide if countervailing measures are not taken. The impact on the disadvantaged section cannot be eliminated completely but there should be careful consideration for reducing it especially at planning and administrative level. The pandemic also presents an opportunity to work on digital infrastructure and decrease the digital divide. Digital education should be popularised in consonance with the spirit of the Sustainable Development Goal to ‘leave no one behind’.

COVID-۱۹; Digital Divide; Education; e-learning; India; Matthew effect