As it celebrates 15 years, the KITE Victers (Versatile ICT-enabled resource for students) channel is taking another big leap during this COVID-19-induced crisis. Post a successful trial run, the second channel of Victers may go on air this month.
A decade-and-a-half after it was inaugurated by the former Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan on August 3, 2006, Victers is the mainstay of First Bell, the State government’s digital education programme for school students during the pandemic. It is estimated that Victers reaches out to nearly 50 lakh students.
The pandemic, says Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) Chief Executive Officer Anvar Sadath K., could be one of the biggest challenges Victers faced. Firstly, because it was unexpected and secondly, as it entailed a lot of coordination in rolling out the digital content.
Culmination of efforts
Mr. Sadath, who has been in charge of KITE and Victers for a decade, says the culmination of two decades of efforts since the introduction of IT education in the State made it possible to rise up to the COVID-19 challenge. Victers, he points out, does not function in isolation. It is backed by digital infrastructure in schools and the teachers who provide the content. Together, all have made it possible to realise digital classes for students.
The biggest challenge, however, was positioning Victers as a channel on the cable network after its launch. Receive only terminals (ROTs) were needed earlier to receive the channel. It was only in 2009 that it got a slot on Asianet, a breakthrough of sorts.
Other important events in the Victers’ journey were live telecast of State School Art Festivals in Kollam and the State capital in 2008 and 2009, he says.
A milestone was bagging the top slot in TAM ratings, courtesy the Haritha Vidyalayam educational reality show, Mr. Sadath says.
24 classes now
Today, KITE telecasts 24 classes in 12 hours — from 7.30 a.m. to 7.30 p.m.
The second Victers channel, a demand of the COVID-19 times, will allow telecast of more classes during the day and cater to more groups of students, he says.
The pandemic also helped to make the channel very visible, especially as it is available on direct-to-home services, besides the cable network, says Mr. Sadath.
