Tripura launches education channel to help school students 'make up for lost learning time'

Agartala: Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb on Monday launched a 24x7 education channel, which will offer lessons to school students, in line with the NCERT syllabus, and help them “make up for the lost learning time” amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Deb, during his address following the launch of ‘‘Vande Tripura’’, said this is the first such initiative by his government to ensure that students do not miss out on their lessons for an extended period of time. “We attach maximum importance to education. We have taken multiple steps, after our government came to power three-and-a-half-years ago, to provide quality education to the students. The channel was introduced to engage the students in the process of learning, notwithstanding the restrictions that came with the pandemic,” Deb said. Education minister Ratan Lal Nath, on his part, said, his department launched an innovative scheme – Notun Disha (new direction) which is aimed at assessing and boosting the academic prowess of elementary school students, but the pandemic has brought everything to a halt. Only recorded programmes would be shown on the newly launched channel this month, and live sessions would begin in June, involving students of around 4,500 schools. “Last year, out government had reached out to almost 90 percent of all school students with lessons imparted over cable channels and mobile phones,” he added.