Kerala Model of Schooling in Times of COVID
A Covid-positive story from this Indian state.
When the Covid pandemic hit, what would you expect from a place like India which has a population of nearly 1.4 billion? Obviously unmanageable loads on the system.
That is exactly what happened too. Every other activity including schooling lost priority to that of saving lives. But one Indian state stood out with its different approach to tackle the obstacles created by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Kerala, India’s most literate state, has put another feather to its cap by hosting more than 6,000 online courses in which more than 43 million pupils from pre-primary to Class 12 participated.
First Bell
The digital lessons, dubbed ‘First Bell,’ began on June 1, 2020, as a stand-in for conventional lessons, and are broadcast on the government-owned KITE VICTERS educational channel, which is part of the KITE (Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education) initiative.
As part of the First Bell program, the KITE has created and aired 6,200 video lessons, totaling approximately 3,100 hours of instructional content.
Additionally, specific episodes have been made available on the web, complete with focus areas and duration, allowing students studying for the exams to view content more readily.
These YouTube classes had many viewers from the Middle East, America, and Europe in addition to those from India.
Kerala even conducted ‘offline’ exams for classes 10 and 12 based on these online classes, when the national education boards canceled them!
The Heroes
All this was possible due to the responsible intervention by many organizations in the state including school PTAs, Alumni groups, local self-governments, departments like the police, and even common people.
Students who lacked devices to access the digital classes were identified. Such students were provided with televisions, tablet phones, and smartphones, which helped bridge the digital divide to a large extent.
Still, some rural students were outside the purview of these efforts, especially in places where mobile network connectivity was poor. Those gaps in the system were covered by the government school teachers visiting students’ homes, villages, and tribal hamlets to transact the lessons.
First Bell 2.0
There seems to be no end to the pandemic soon as the rate of vaccination for adults is struggling to keep up with the huge population numbers. This, coupled with the unavailability of vaccines for kids has forced the state to continue schooling online, for this academic year too.
As the students and teachers gear up for the second year of classes online, dubbed First Bell 2.0, there are fresh hurdles to cross. But this prodigy state of India is confident to overcome any obstacle in providing quality education to its children. The state government is leading from the front ensuring the necessary infrastructure. The Kerala Fibre Optic Network (KFON) aims to provide high-speed internet access to the poor free of cost and at affordable rates to others. This would ensure stable internet connectivity all across the state.
A separate budget has been set up to acquire the equipment required for online classes. Generators and solar power are being arranged for far to reach places. Internet service providers have been requested to give free connection to those in need and waive service fees. To enlist the help of organizations, elaborate campaigns will be undertaken. All district authorities have collected information through schools, parent-teacher associations, educational offices, and other local bodies to identify students that need help.
All this comes as no surprise from Kerala, the first Indian state to declare internet access a basic human right. They are confident to ride the tide even better than they did last time, and they know that the country looks up to them to learn a lesson or two!
