One of the things getting affected the most by the pandemic is education. Students’ education has come to a partial halt, online classes are not really benefitting the students.
Delhi government has tried to overcome this by daily sorting 3 hours of airtime on Doordarshan and All India Radio to broadcast content of the classes for students.
It is already understood that even when the lockdown is relieved, reopening of schools and restarting it for fulltime will take time and not every student is able to avail online classes. Either some face network problems or they cant avail the use of a smartphone.
The officials believe that broadcasting lessons through Doordarshan (DD) and All India Radio (AIR) is the easiest way to reach maximum students.
“We have approached the Centre and sought three hours of daily broadcast time on both Doordarshan and All India Radio to broadcast classes for students till the time schools reopen. We have sought separate slots for elementary, secondary and senior secondary classes,” a senior official of the Directorate of Education (DoE) said.
Schools have been closed since March 16 when the Centre announced a countrywide education centre shutdown to contain the COVID-19 outbreak, which has now been extended till May 3.
Doordarshan and All India Radio are broadcasting virtual classes and other educational content through their regional channels across the country on TV, radio and YouTube.
“We are using the online medium and collaborating with the best organisations in the education domain to conduct online classes for our students. If you grant us the slots, we will have our teachers on board to conduct the classes and air as per our lesson plan,” the official said.
As per official statistics, only 68 per cent of students have access to smartphones at home. “Only 68 per cent of students have access to smartphones at home and once some restrictions in the lockdown are eased, students may not have access to them necessarily as their parents would be stepping out. It may take time to resume full-time classroom learning in schools. Also, there are summer vacations”, the DoE official explained.
The issue was also raised by Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Monday in a meeting with education ministers of other states chaired by Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal.
The Delhi government has already been conducting its popular ‘Happiness classes’ through SMSs and IVR not only for students of its schools but parents as well.
The Doordarshan Kendras that are already broadcasting virtual classes is Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Gujarat, and Jammu and Kashmir.
All India Radio stations broadcasting virtual classes are Vijaywada, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Tiruchirapalli, Coimbatore, Puducherry, Madurai, Trivandrum, Tirunelveli, Panaji, Jalgaon, Ratnagiri, Sangli, Parbhani, Aurangabad, Pune, Nagpur, Mumbai, Gangtok, Guwahati, Bikaner, Udaipur, Jodhpur and Jaipur.
The stations broadcasting educational content are Bhopal, Chennai, Kozhikode and Thrissur an average, a DD channel is airing two-and-a-half hours of educational content daily and an All India Radio channel is broadcasting 30 minutes of educational content.
