The ‘First Bell’ initiative, rolled out by the government for State school students through its KITE (Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education) Victers educational channel, has completed 1,000 classes.
First Bell was launched by the General Education Department on June 1 as an interim arrangement against the backdrop of State schools remaining closed owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is aimed at ensuring that not a single student misses out on classes during these testing times.
As part of the programme, 604 classes have been aired through the KITE Victers channel, along with 274 Kannada medium classes and 163 Tamil medium classes telecast through local cable networks in the State.
In addition to the Victers channel viewership, the web-streaming platform of KITE Victers ( www.victers.kite.kerala.gov.in ) has also seen a tremendous response — as many as 442 terabytes data has been accessed from 141 countries.
The monthly views of the YouTube channel ( www.youtube.com/itsvicters ) come to 150 million (15 crore). The average daily viewership of classes on YouTube alone is 54 lakh, which translates to a whopping 5 lakh hours a day. Despite limited advertisements, the revenue from it stands at an average of ₹15 lakh a month. The classes are also broadcast through Facebook ‘Live’ on the Facebook page of the channel www.facebook.com/victerseduchannel .
Decentralised
Owing to the pandemic, several places in the State, including Thiruvananthapuram, have hotspots, leading to restrictions on movement of people and affecting the preparation of classes. To tackle the crisis, KITE has made arrangements for preparation of classes from different districts. “To supplement this decentralised process, KITE has planned for providing support through the more than 2,000 schools where Little KITEs units have been set up,” K. Anvar Sadath, Chief Executive Officer, KITE, said in a statement.
At present, augmented reality and virtual reality are being used to the extent possible. This will be expanded in due course. The schools will make use of free software applications to develop the classes for airing. Classes on co-curricular activities, including sports, will be ready from August, Mr. Sadath said.
