Maha Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad requests Centre for 12-hour air time on national TV, 2-hour radio slot for school lessons

Maharashtra Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad has written a letter to the Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar and has requested for 12-hour air time on national TV and two-hour radio slot for school lessons.

"Due to the COVID-19 crisis over the last 10 weeks, the schools across the country have been shut down and students are at home. The situation has pushed us to close the schools a month before the summer vacation and a more prolonged lockdown means that our students are at a huge risk of losing significant instructional time. Govt of Maharashtra along with SCERT (State Council of Educational Research and Training) is figuring out different ways to support student learning in these difficult times, including promoting DIKSHA a source for learning via mobile devices," the Minister wrote in the letter.

Gaikwad appreciated the move from the MHRD and the Ministry of I&B to provide time slots for various states to transmit educational content via DD National Channels. "This will be highly beneficial in these times," she said and added that Maharashtra will be extremely interested in using this facility.

She added, "In the course of next academic year, we wish to broadcast 12 hours of daily education content through any two channels which comes under DD National Channel Family and two hours of daily content on AIR (All India Radio). We have our virtual classroom studios, if you allow us to transmit the live broadcast also it will be a great help."

Meanwhile, the academic session is all set to begin from June 15, an official from the department told Indian Express. “Academic Session will begin on 15 June irrespective of whether the schools start or not. Wherever they can’t, in red zone or other places, we will use digital media to reach out,” he said.