K Palaniswami launches Kalvi Tholaikatchi, Tamil Nadu govt-run channel for Class 10, 12 students

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edapaddi K Palaniswami on Tuesday launched Kalvi Tholaikatchi, a state-run education channel for students of classes 10 and 12. According to a report in The Hindu, the state-run education channel will broadcast lessons for two-and-a-half hours every day from Monday to Friday. As per the report, the chief minister also launched the distribution of free textbooks for the students of classes 10 and 12 for the 2020-21 academic year. He inaugurated a scheme for downloading video lessons for Class XII students through hi-tech labs set up at government and aided schools across the state. The News Minute reported that experts at Tamil Nadu Text Book Corporation (TNTBC) and Higher Secondary school teachers were involved in creating video lessons for the students. The decision to broadcast lessons through the government’s Kalvi channel and 14 other private television channels was taken as schools are closed due to the COVID-19 lockdown and there is no clarity as to when the classes will resume. Videos are being pushed to a central server and from there to individual schools through labs. The report stated that the lessons for the first 30 days have been made available and will be updated as when the content is ready. According to the report in The Hindu, Commissioner of School Education Siji Thomas Vaidyan, who headed the committee that had been given the task of finding ways to tackle challenges faced due to the COVID-19 lockdown, submitted a report to the chief minister at the launch event. School Education Minister KA Sengottaiyan, Chief Secretary K Shanmugam, School Education Secretary Dheeraj Kumar and Director of School Education S Kannappan were also present on the occasion.