Kerala schools reopened with digital classes on Tuesday amid the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated the ‘preveshanolsavam’ or school reopening. The classes are aired through the KITE-Victers channel, a state-run education channel. Last year, KITE had developed over 8,300 digital classes and these were aired through the KITE Victers channel as part of the First Bell programme. Meanwhile, all schools in the state will be able to conduct their own inauguration online.
Addressing the students from his residence, the Chief Minister said it's during tough times that children will be able to learn new lessons, as he inaugurated the session. "We assure all that like last year we will be imparting online education and we will be trying to improve and better the output compared to the last academic year. We all know that it's a tough time for our students who sit at home. But we should tell them that the world over the situation is the same and we can assure them that as normalcy returns, the students can get back to their classrooms," the CM said.
State Education Minister V Sivankutty and two of his cabinet colleagues were present at the Cotton Hill Girls School in the state capital, along with a handful of teachers and other administrative staff during the inauguration ceremony. Sivankutty said that at the moment none can predict when children can return to their classrooms and for the time being classes would be in the digital mode. His ministry is working out how best the classes can be made interactive, as students need to interact with their teachers.
As a first step during the first week, there will be bridging classes to connect with what happened in the last academic year so that the continuity in the digital mode can continue smoothly. "My sister and I were hoping against hope that this year we will be able to go to school. Prior to the COVID-19 period, at times we used to be lazy to return to school after a weekend break, but after sitting at home for the entire previous academic year, our only wish is, we really want to get back to school, as we have now realised what it means to be in school," a Class 6 student said.