Schools will reopen in Kerala on June 1, but classes will be conducted online as it was done last year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Only classes for standards 1 to 9 will begin on June 1. Classes 10 to 12 will reopen later. Online classes will be conducted through the Kerala government's KITE Victers Channel. All the classes will be held through its First Bell portal. A ‘praveshanolsavam’ (ceremony of school entry for children starting school) will also be held online. V Sivankutty, Education Minister, released the song for praveshanolsavam on Sunday titled 'puthiyoru sooryan udiche', meaning 'a new sun has risen'. Two days earlier, the minister informed that free handloom uniforms and textbooks for Class I students were distributed.
On June 1, KITE Victers will have classes for Anganwadi students from 10.30 am, in a programme called ‘Kilikonjal classukal’.
As part of the praveshanolsavam, actors Mammootty, Mohanlal, Manju Warrier, Prithviraj Sukumaran and Suraj Venjaramoodu will give their wishes to the new students through the channel. At 11 am, Chief of Disaster Risk Reduction in the United Nations Environment Programme, Muralee Thummarukudy, magician Gopinath Muthukad, and UNICEF social policy advisor Piyush Antony will talk to the students. After 2 pm, child psychiatrist Dr Jayaprakash will answer the children’s questions through a live phone-in programme.
A trial broadcast for classes 1 to 10 will be aired from June 2 to June 4. Plus 2 classes will begin from June 7. KITE Chief Executive Officer Anwar Sadath said that apart from the prepared digital classes, there will be an online platform for teachers and students to interact with each other.
Meanwhile, Higher Education Minister R Bindu also called a meeting of vice chancellors last week to discuss the reopening of colleges. Final year students in colleges will have exams in June. Several universities have requested to conduct the exams offline.
Also read: