Education is to ensure equality for all, but the ongoing pandemic and the lack of access to television, internet, electricity and cable connection has altered equal access to opportunity for scores of students. Since lockdown began, government institutions have been attempting to impart education through various means. Kalvi Tholaikaatchi (Education Television), is one of the measures taken by the Tamil Nadu government to ensure continuing education. However, activists and teachers in the state opine that more planning should have gone into the channel before launching it for students.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami on July 14 launched the state-run education channel for the benefit of students from Class 10 and Class 12; the channel would educate them with televised video classes. The television channel, however, has also started to broadcast videos made for students from other classes.
Though Kalvi Tholaikaatchi has begun broadcast, students from tribal hamlets, rural areas and many government schools are missing out on classes due to various reasons.
“There is no electricity in the tribal hamlet I’m currently working at, so the children can hardly attend TV classes. Even in the few households that have a TV, students are unable to learn because of lack of interaction with teachers who are taking the classes. Once I tried to watch a full episode of a session in the channel, but I could not pay attention because there was no interactive mechanism,” said Mahalakshmi, a teacher in a state-run tribal residential school.
A few teachers working in rural and urban schools said the patronage for the channel is low since English medium students do not watch the channel despite teachers repeatedly telling them to do so. Teachers said the students do not attend classes because all the videos are made in Tamil and a lot of jargon, for subjects like science and geography, confuses them.
Kalvi Tholaikaatchi telecasts recorded classes for students from Class 2 to Class 12 (barring Class 11) between 6 am and 11 pm. The timetable for the channel has been published on its website.
As per the timetable, between July 15 and July 31, the channel did not have a slot for Class 11 students since admissions are yet to begin and students are yet to finalise their streams. The channel has slots for National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) classes.
Vizhiyan Umanath, a children’s writer who was part of the state government’s curriculum framework committee said, “The government should have conducted a survey among students to know where they are currently residing — whether at home or in their native places (elsewhere). The survey should have also included questions on the nearest accessible television and whether the television has a cable connection and access to government channels.”
“In case the students do not have access to TV, the government should have created an alternate arrangement at panchayat offices for students to attend classes by maintaining social distancing,” suggested Vizhiyan.
Many students in the state are still unaware of the government’s announcement that all students up to Class 9 have been declared all pass.
“There is no official communication from the school that all the students have been promoted to the next grade. Hence, students are in a lot of dilemma. The books have also not reached the students. The government should have planned all these before implementing the TV classes,” said Vizhiyan, adding that the government should seek expert opinion to improve the quality of the channel.
Those in the education sector, like Vizhiyan, suggest that the teachers conduct bridge courses in the interim as TV and online classes are no substitute for classroom teaching.
He said, “Education is a two-way process, so the job of a teacher does not end by just teaching a portion. They also keep track if the students understood the portions. In TV classes too, the teachers should make sure the students call them and clarify doubts. The teachers should also give assignments to ensure that the students understand the classes.”
Mahalakshmi said, “We have asked the government to provide us textbooks so we can call the students and teach them, or at least the students can take the book and read for themselves. During this time, the government should make teachers impart life skills among students. So the government can even train teachers on ways to connect with children during the lockdown and the life lessons they can teach.”
Further, Mahalakshmi said that everyone must question the government on its plans for students who do not have access to television.
“People can think that since coronavirus cases are less in rural areas, the students can watch television from the homes of other students. However, even the few children who try to attend classes were forced to face taunts of the people. So everything is complicated. We should ask the government about the alternative that they have planned for students who are left out,” she said.
The Tamil Nadu government started the initiative to launch Kalvi Tholaikaatchi two years ago. Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami officially launched the channel in August 2019 with an aim to create digital explainers to support textbook content.
Speaking to TNM, one of the teachers working for Kalvi Tholaikaatchi said, “The Education Department initially started Kalvi Tholaikaatchi with an aim to support classroom teaching. The Department thought that teachers can play the videos while explaining certain concepts to make the classroom lively. However, due to the pandemic, the Department has decided to turn this television channel into an alternate medium for imparting education.”
The videos telecast on the channel are made by teachers on various topics mentioned in the subject books. The Department has produced documentaries and graphic videos for Tamil literature, he said.
The teacher, who did not wish to be named, said, “Teachers from various districts are involved in the process of making videos for the channel. The teachers have created over 1,000 episodes on various subject matters. The videos are available even for kindergarten sections. The government will telecast them one by one.”
“The viewership of the channel was around 30 lakh in the first week of June,” he added.
The government is also in talks with private channels to broadcast the educational videos. Education Minister KA Sengottaiyan said that video lessons would be broadcast in 14 private channels from August 1. The Minister appreciated the channels for agreeing to broadcast the content free of cost.
“As students staying in neighboring states of Kerala and Andhra Pradesh cannot access the videos, we are planning to involve the private channels. Talks are on to rope in two Tamil news channels,” revealed the teacher.
On the question of lack of slots for Class 11 students, he said, “The channel was telecasting videos for Class 10 and Class 12 students since they have to face board examinations. However, the videos (for Class 11 students) are available and will be telecast soon.”