One Class, One Channel Plan: HRD Ministry Plans 12 DTH Channels For School Students

In a positive development, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) is planning to beam 12 Direct to Home (DTH) channels on televisions to help the school students, reports Hindustan Times.

The move will be beneficial for students who are finding it difficult to keep up with their studies due to the coronavirus lockdown. Each channel will be dedicated to one class.

“The ministry is pursuing a one class, one channel plan. The department of school education and literacy may anchor these 12 channels with appropriate content for every class. The expertise of agencies like the NCERT and the CBSE may be used to develop content and run these channels,” a senior government official was quoted by the report.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a lot of schools and other institutes have started taking online classes. However, there were questions regarding the lack of digital accessibility for everyone. Moreover, concerns were raised regarding the effect that long hours children spending online may have.

There are also plans to cater higher education sector in a similar manner.

Last month, in an interview to HT, HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank had said that to address the digital divide, his ministry had tied up with Information & Broadcasting ministry to air Swayam Prabha channels on their DTH platform, Tata Sky, and Airtel DTH. Earlier, Swayam channels were be available on DD-DTH, Dish TV and Jio TV App.

The minister had also underscored that the option of using All India Radio to transact the curriculum to students for reaching the remotest parts of the country was being explored.