Kerala government has decided to extend the trial period of online classes for one more week. This was decided at the Cabinet meeting held in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday.
The original plan was for a one-week trial of online classes through Victers Channel. Regular classes were to start from June 8 when all the lessons taken during the trial period would be re-telecast.
The trial run has been extended because of the realisation that it would take another week to arrange online facilities for children with no access to modern communication tools.
In fact, two weeks before the scheduled re-opening, the Education Department had done a preliminary study and found that 2.6 lakh to three lakh chldren in Kerala had no smart phones, television or computers at their homes.
The education minister, C Raveendranath, and the general education director, Jeevan Babu, had said that such students, too, would attend online classes in nearby libraries or anganwadis through television or laptops.
There, however, appeared no such urgency to set up facilities where it was found that children would be left out of the online system.
The suicide of Devika, a ninth standard dalit student who apparently feared education could be denied to her, has demonstrated that this was an issue that needed to be solved on an emergency basis.
On June 1, a day before Devika set fire to herself, Chief Minister had announced a Neighbourhood Study Centre scheme. It involved finding a common hall in a panchayat or ward, say a public library or a even a school auditorium, where a television could be installed for students with no online access at home.
It was said Kerala State Financial Enterprises (KSFE) would bear 75 per cent of the cost of a new television set. The funds would be taken from the portion of the salaries of KSFE employees that had been set aside for the Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF). At the moment, the money is parked with the KSFE, and it has been asked to release the money for purchasing television sets for Neighbourhood Study Centres.
The remaining 25 per cent of the television's cost and other establishment costs will have to be found by the concerned local bodies.
Many of the local bodies in the coastal areas in Thiruvananthapuram Onmanorama had contacted on Wednesday said they were still in the process of identifying children without online access. "Only after the list of children is drawn up can we think of finding a suitable building where classes could be provided," an official of a coastal panchayat in Thiruvananthapuram said.
Many said the list would be ready today or, at the most, tomorrow.
Certain rural wards in northern districts have found what they have called "neighbourhood homes" where children in a particular area could be schooled. "There are one or two homes in a ward where there is a television set. We have given Victers connection in these homes and have asked children in the neighbourhood to gather at this home. Lunch and snacks will be prepared by all the families in the ward," said Amina, a ward member in Malappuram.
Also, in certain financially distressed regions of Wayanad and Palakkad, Neighbourhood Study Centres have already started with the help of Kudumbashree units.
