The Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) has come out with a plan to provide the offline version of its 'First Bell 2.0' digital classes for the students in Lakshadweep region, who study Kerala syllabus. This comes after the request by the Directorate of Education, Lakshadweep Administration, to KITE to provide the digital contents offline to the students in Lakshadweep, where there are issues related to internet connectivity as well as availability of DTH channel, an official statement said.

Further, the Education Officer of Lakshadweep had visited the KITE State Office, following which it was decided to support the students in Lakshadweep by providing downloaded versions of digital contents of pre-primary to class 12 classes on a monthly basis. This initiative would directly benefit 6,420 students in 43 schools located in 10 islands of the archipelago, who study per the Kerala state syllabus.

School education has been a major concern in the Lakshadweep Islands ever since COVID-19 cases were reported in union territory from the beginning of 2021. Usually, schools are open on the islands till the end of March and close for a one-month vacation. Later the school restarts in mid-May. But this time the schools were not open even after vacation due to an increased number of cases and subsequent lockdown. Unlike other places, there were no online classes available for students due to poor connectivity.

While KITE’s support will address concerns of those under Kerala state syllabus, the education of CBSE students on the islands is still in the lurch.

Earlier in 2017, during the initial phase of the Hi-Tech School Project in Kerala, KITE had provided a 10-day specific ICT training for 60 teachers from Lakshadweep Islands at KITE’s Regional Resource Centre at Ernakulam. Though advanced training for these teachers was planned last year, it did not materialise due to COVID-19 pandemic, said K Anvar Sadath, CEO, KITE. "KITE has been providing necessary support to Lakshadweep Department of Education for setting up Hi-Tech classrooms, on request," he said.

Lakshadweep schools were also part of the EDUSAT network of Kerala from 2005 onwards, but over the years, the equipment has become dysfunctional.

From last year onwards, with its inclusion in all DTH networks, KITE VICTERS channel is now available in Lakshadweep region also. However, due to the prevailing issues of availability of channels as well as internet connectivity in many areas in the Island, the need of the hour was to make available the First Bell Digital Classes in an offline mode, which can be directly given to the students, the statement added.

(with PTI inputs)