Patna: The Bihar education department has now turned to audio-video aids to teach students in government schools as they find ‘School TV’ more enjoyable than online classes.
Doordarshan’s School TV runs weekly entrepreneurship and extracurricular activities for students of Classes IX to XII. It is a medley of both audio and video which the students have been enjoying lately. According to a report Indian Express, the students find these TV classes to be innovative and engaging compared to “boring” online classes.
Ruchi Kumari, a Class X student, expressed joy in learning through School TV. However, she wished that the channel also taught about Maithili paintings.
The Bihar education department is now receiving similar suggestions that could be used to motivate School Education Project (SEP) officials. These officials have been working hard on the students’ reception of the TV classes between Mondays and Fridays.
The education department is focussing on improving content, with classes on photography, computer coding, cartooning, arts and craft, yoga, career counseling, cooking, and anger and stress management being very popular among the students.
“At a time when classes are not running, we have School TV programs which prepare ourselves to take real-life challenges. It talks about our areas of interest and also if it can get us jobs,” said Shailendra Kumar Sah, a Class X student.
“When we started online programs for school texts, we thought of doing something innovative and forward-looking. This is where School TV came in with support from our content provider, Going To School, a voluntary group that has been working with us since 2012,” stated Bihar Education Project’s Special Project Officer, Kiran Kumari.
“We engaged professionals to send their videos. We engaged IT experts, sportspersons, comedians, psychologists, authors, photographers, and chefs. We decided to air these programs on Saturdays and Sundays on Doordarshan in May. It was well-received from the first episode,” she added, as quoted by the newspaper.
The first episode was aired on May 29 and 77 topics have been covered so far. The videos last for about 12 minutes to keep the attention of students. The classes have a cumulative viewership of about 50 to 60 lakh for ‘Mera Doordarshan, Mera Vidyalaya’, which also includes School TV.