June 1 is an important day in Kerala’s calendar. No, not because of the monsoon which tends to touch India’s shores along the Kerala  coast in and around this data. The day is important because for generations schools have opened on this day after summer vacations with children shielding themselves from torrential rain with umbrellas.

After summer vacations spent indoors, a more protracted spell of indoor time beckons children with the state keeping its date with school reopening, albeit through virtual learning. In a bold experiment, the state run VICTERS (Versatile ICT Enabled Resource for Students) TV channel of the state education department has been turned into an experimental online classroom for Classes 1-10 and 12.
Branded First Bell, the channel’s educational offering is available live from 8.30 am to 5.30 pm with 2 hours earmarked daily for class 12, 1.5 hours for Class 10, one hour for classes 8 and 9, with three periods of 30 mins, each while the lower classes have only one period of 30 mins each. Re-telecasts are available in the evening and night and during weekends. While the live online streaming suffered bandwidth issues on the Android app, the Victers website worked well. The classes are pre-recorded with ample usage of graphics to offer some visual delights to children and some sharp editing  has also been done to make amends for the inexperience of teachers in the novel pedagogical mode. Recordings of the classes are also available on Youtube.

State education minister Prof C Raveendranath has said this is a one-week trial run. There are many people in Kerala without both television and smartphones. Ensuring access to either of these devices is important and panchayats, self-help groups and local schools will reportedly be roped in to provide last mile connectivity for those from unprivileged backgrounds. Textbooks have also not been delivered to children leaving children at a great disadvantage without reference material. The minister agrees that having dedicated channels for each class would have been better than the current timeshare arrangement. Half an hour of online classes a day for Classes 1 to 7 is no recompense for the action-packed days they spend in schools. Also asking live doubts is impossible for children watching the classes on TV.
The minister says teachers in schools where the students are enrolled will have to fill such key gaps and fulfil tasks like assignments and assessments using WhatsApp. Despite all the shortcomings, Kerala has undertaken an important experiment for public education. Nearly 41 lakh students in 12,000 state board schools, aided and unaided, are taking part in this experiment. If coronavirus cases surge amid the Unlock mode and there is no way for schools to open, virtual classes may be here to stay.
Getting tv screens, laptops, tablets, smartphones to BPL households, remote areas and tribal hamlets is important. There will be shortcomings in the initial weeks but that is no reason to ditch a promising experiment. Kerala has prided itself on greater social inclusion setting a model for the rest of the country.  So its technological learning modes must also take care not to create a digital divide that exacerbates existing socio-economic ones. In a months time when North Indian schools open, Kerala can hopefully offer some dos and don’ts for the way ahead on rolling out virtual classrooms.
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