The Delhi Government is seeking 3-hours of daily on Air time on Doordarshan and All India Radio to broadcast classes to conduct classes for the students during the COVID-19 lockdown. The officials believe that resuming normal school activities after ease in lockdown restrictions will take some time and reaching students thorough Doordarshan (DD) and All India Radio (AIR) is the easiest and best way.
"We have approached the Centre and sought three hours of daily broadcast time on both Doordarshan and All India Radio to broadcast classes for students till the time schools reopen. We have sought separate slots for elementary, secondary and senior secondary classes," a senior official of the Directorate of Education (DoE) said.
Schools across the country have been closed since March 16 in order to contain the COVID-19 breakout.
"We are using the online medium and collaborating with the best organizations in the education domain to conduct online classes for our students. If you grant us the slots, we will have our teachers on board to conduct the classes and air as per our lesson plan," the official said.
The Delhi government is conducting the classes through various online platforms. However, according to the statistics only 68 percent of the students have access to the smartphones at home.
Doordarshan kendras in Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Gujarat, and Jammu and Kashmir are broadcasting virtual classes.
All India radio stations in Vijaywada, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Tiruchirapalli, Coimbatore, Puducherry, Madurai, Trivandrum, Tirunelveli, Panaji, Jalgaon, Ratnagiri, Sangli, Parbhani, Aurangabad, Pune, Nagpur, Mumbai, Gangtok, Guwahati, Bikaner, Udaipur, Jodhpur and Jaipur are also broadcasting virtual classes.