Education Through Radio in Odisha

• 28 Sep 2020

Why in News

Recently, the state government of Odisha has decided to reach out to children in remote areas through the radio as online classes fail to reach most students due to poor mobile connectivity.

Key Points

• Education Through Radio:
  
  • The state's School and Mass Education Department has launched classroom teaching through All India Radio.
  • Students from Class I to VIII can learn their lessons through 15-minutes of teaching by experienced teachers through radio.
    
    • It has been highlighted that a student can cover six pages of his textbook within 15 minutes of a radio programme.
  • Although teaching through radio would not be effective as it could have been in a physical classroom, the dire situation has forced the administration to try different methods for reaching students.
• Other Initiatives:
  
  • Students have been provided with textbooks even though schools in Odisha have been closed since 17^th March 2020.
  • Three hours of classroom instruction are also available through Doordarshan.
  • Since considerable time has been lost due to the closure of schools, school syllabus has been reduced by 30%.
• Reasons for the Move:
  
  • The schools could not be opened due to Covid-19 pandemic so the education department tried to reach students with online classes, mostly through smartphones.
    
    • However, out of the 60 lakh students, hardly 22 lakhs were being reached during the lockdowns.
  • The situation worsened when the lockdown was lifted and parents started going to their workplaces taking the only smartphone in the family with them.
    
    • It led to a further drop of 6 to 7 lakh students attending virtual classes.
  • Those who have a sufficient number of smart devices for students, suffer due to poor network coverage.

Other Nationwide Initiatives for Education

• Centre’s announcement to start the 2020-21 academic year virtually.
  
  • Plans to distribute laptops or tablets to 40% of all college and university students over the next five years and to equip all government schools with Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
• Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing (DIKSHA) mobile app has been offered to the states as a platform to provide content in local languages.
• The Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan has deployed its SWAYAM Prabha portal which has lectures on direct-to-home (DTH) and online, to help students.
• Different e-learning techniques through virtual platforms like YouTube, Zoom app and Google Classroom are being used by some institutions.
• PRAGYATA guidelines on digital education.

Source: TH