As the online class initiative by the State government entered its second phase on Monday, the district education authorities here have opened common learning centres to cover all school students in the district.
V.R. Shyla, Deputy Director of Education (DDE), said learning centres had been opened in 200 libraries, 34 Akshaya centres, 57 block resource centres and in the halls under various grama panchayats. These centres, established by the Department of Education in association with Samagra Shiksha Kerala and various volunteer organisations, will help around 5,000 students to attend the classes.
TV to be given
“The focus is now on extending the learning facility to the houses of every student by providing them television sets free of cost. For instance, around 1,280 of the 1.43 lakh school students up to Class 10 do not posses a TV set in their houses and we hope to cover this gap through sponsorship by the second half of July. Till then, they will be attending the classes from the common centres,” explained the official.
Further, plans are afoot to distribute tablet computers to 3,000 students with the support of the Kottayam district panchayat.
Collector visits centre
To asses the efficacy of the centres, District Collector M. Anjana on Monday visited one such unit at the cultural centre in Koshamattom Colony. Meanwhile, the district education department has started attempts to reach out to the students from Kottayam who reside outside the district. “Twenty-seven have been identified so far. Of this, six who have returned to their native State of Odisha remain untraceable. Efforts are on to ensure that the remaining have access to the learning programme,” the DDE said.
