Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government has decided to begin the next school academic year from June 1 and classes will be conducted online due to the rising COVID cases.
Kerala Education Minister V Sivankutty said that the COVID situation forced the government to begin the next academic year with online classes.
The classes will be aired online and via the Kerala government's KITE VICTORS channel.
The school reopening ceremony too will be held online, where Sivankutty will deliver a speech, welcoming students.
He added that certain changes have been made to make the classes more interesting and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate it on June 1. The state-level inauguration would be held at the Cotton Hill Girls School in Thiruvananthapuram.
There would be bridging classes to connect with what happened in the last academic year to ensure seamless continuity in the digital model as the first step, during the first week.
Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) CEO, K. Anvar Sadath told that the government is planning to hold interactive classes with the teachers coming live from their classroom and provide sessions that would give the students a real classroom feel.
In the previous academic year, when the pandemic began, KITE had developed more than 8,300 digital classes and was aired through the KITE Victers channel as part of the First Bell programme.
All the classes from Pre-primary to 12th Standards was held in the digital mode last year and the same would happen this time too.
Sivankutty also added that the annual welcome function for the kids who enter the field of education for the first time will also be able to be held virtually.
"Leading lights like superstar Mammootty, Mohanlal, Prithiviraj and other personalities will be present online along with the Chief Minister to welcome the kids," added Sivankutty.
He said like the previous years, this time too school students will be given handloom material for their school uniforms and for that 39 lakh metres of such material will be given to 9,39,107 students and for those who do not get it, will be given an allowance of Rs 600 to buy.
Sivankutty also urged individuals and organisations to come forward to provide electronic gadgets to school kids, so that they can have their online education in the best manner possible.