In a thoughtful move by the Prasar Bharati, India's public broadcaster has come up with a brilliant idea to keep students busy during the lockdown. Due to the rising cases of coronavirus in India, which has breached 12,000 mark, people are asked to stay indoors after the lockdown was extended till May 3. As a result, schools and colleges remain shut, exams are either canceled or postponed, leaving students puzzled and clueless about what's next.
This is also a growing concern among parents who see their kids either struggling to study on their own or refuse to catch up on their academics. Those who have access to high-speed internet on smartphones, there are a lot of educational channels airing relevant content. Some schools are even conducting online classes for students. But that's not feasible for everyone as a large population does not have access to phones or the internet.
Doordarshan, AIR to the rescue
Prasar Bharti CEO, Shashi Shekhar announced on Twitter that many Doordarshan channels are already airing teleclasses in collaboration with state governments. In addition to that, 4 public satellite channels with educational content are available on all platforms and several public educational channels can be received through DD FreeDish set-top-boxes.
In response to a statement from International Business Times, India, Shankar said both Doordarshan and All India Radio (AIR) are airing hours of educational content for students who can access content on their TVs.
Shankar said that a total of 1,000 minutes, approximately 17 hours daily content is aired across 7 channels on DD. Additionally, an average of 2.5 hours of educational content is aired daily across all channels on DD.
As for AIR, approximately 11 hours worth daily content is aired across 23 channels and an average of 30 minutes worth educational content is aired every day.
This initiative makes it easy for a lot of people who have a TV, but lack cable or STB connection. Without high-speed internet on smartphones, content aired on DD and AIR can certainly be of great use for students across the country.
Doordarshan brings back popular shows during lockdown
In an effort to keep people indoors during the lockdown, Doordarshan started airing the iconic series Ramayan and Mahabharat. That's not it, other popular shows from the golden era, including Shaktimaan, Shriman Shrimati, Upanishad Ganga and Krishna Kali, are back, giving viewers more reasons to stay home and relive some nostalgic moments.
