Thiruvananthapuram: The whole world has come to a standstill due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the inevitable lockdown in India has left thrown life out of gear. Amid battling the pandemic in all ways it could and still seeing a spike in cases with the return of expatriates, Kerala was is in a sticky situation.
It could not even think of reopening schools early in June, risking a winning battle against the pandemic. Nevertheless, a solution was found almost immediately and was executed effectively- Online classes.
Kerala government’s education department shifted its focus to online classes instantly. On June 1, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan launched the online education solution named ‘First Bell’ for the schools in the State.
‘First bell’ is the first of its kind arrangement implemented by a State Government in India when the school students are not in a position to attend their schools owing to COVID. As per available statistics, about 40 lakh people in India and outside India are attending the online classes conducted by the Kerala Government.
The programme is designed to benefit all students with the government and government-aided schools. The students of class 1-12 can learn their lessons in the safety of their homes through any convenient mediums: television, online portal or a youtube channel.
The sessions are scheduled for all classes from 8:30 in the morning through 5:30 in the evening. On the television, the sessions are telecasted on the Government channel Kite Victers. The same is also available on the online portal of Kite Victers and on their Youtube channel.
Online classes began as a temporary arrangement until the students could go to school as usual, not as an alternate arrangement during COVID lockdown. Before the sessions begin every week, the week’s time table for each class would be published on all mediums.
In order to identify and address the hitches and glitches, the first week’s classes were being carried out as a trial run. Foreseeing the possible technical problems that could crop up due to the cable signal disruptions or electricity supply, the lessons once telecasted were re-telecasted.
The lessons are available anytime for all the Government-aided school students on www.victers.kite.kerala.gov.in, facebook.com/victerseduchannel and youtube.co/itsvicter. For those who miss the television telecast, online platforms would be beneficial as it is accessible anytime.
The rise in the number of subscribers for Victers youtube channel from 50000 to 10 lakh indicates the demand for online platform telecast of lessons. Based on the survey conducted by the Education Department that about 2 lakh students in Kerala do not have access to these lessons, measures were taken to provide the deprived students with laptops from the schools under the leadership of the teachers.
Other than that, many NGOs, private institutions, Panchaths, school alumni, businessmen and political outfits provided the students with televisions and smartphones. The necessary changed were made to the programme as per the responses received following the trial classes.
A separate Youtube channel and TV channel telecast through local cable network were also started to cater to the Kannada and Tamil medium students studying in Kerala schools.
The school headteachers can decide if the same lessons are to be repeated again once the schools reopen. All apprehensions and confusions regarding the conduct of online classes come to an end with the successful completion of one month of ‘First Bell’ classes. Following the footsteps of the State’s measures, CBSE and ICSE schools in the State have also begun online classes for their students in the same way.
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