Karnataka's Education Minister Suresh Kumar S, on Wednesday afternoon, announced that they would be starting a YouTube channel for students to learn new things during this lockdown period. He invited people to contribute content, which will be picked and curated by a special editorial board, but duly credited. He said via a post on Facebook, "Corona has not created hardships for us. With the inevitability of spending time at our home, it has given us many opportunities and new promises. Children watch the same TV shows and play video games on the mobile phone which leads to reducing their creativity and learning ability. In such times, physical activity also goes compromised. Hence, efforts should be made to create a healthy environment at home. One must provide a new platform to shape their creative ideas. Therefore, the Education Department has come up with a unique idea of launching a Youtube channel in order to reach out to children."
The Education Department will be uploading an hour's worth of video content on their channel every day. He further added, "The idea behind starting this channel is to deliver creative ideas and information every day for an hour through this channel. We wish to show special programmes that can inspire parents and attract children. We plan to showcase four different programmes during this hour and each one will be for 10 to 15 minutes."
The best part of this initiative is that anyone can be part of this programme — regardless of whether you're a teacher, engineer, or any other professional. He said, "If you have ideas that inspire the creativity of children and a desire to contribute to society, then you can be part of this campaign. The programmes you create and offer to us are chosen based on their innovation, suitability and relevance. The videos or subjects that people present must be meant for children to watch. Each video must be of 10 to 15 minutes duration and the content you describe in this video must be new and should include some activities that will intrigue and engage children."
With a view to see that children are not taught the same old lessons from their curriculum, the Minister suggested that people could make videos around activities like storytelling, book introduction, detailed demonstration of experiments, activities, magic, proverbs, puzzles, origami etc. "These activities can be later transmitted to a hearing aid and help visually impaired children also. We will create an editorial board to review the videos you submit and make a decision about broadcasting. There is no opportunity to question the board's decision. The programme will be broadcast for an hour each day for the next 50 days to suit all the age groups."
In order to see that people follow the lockdown rules, he also stressed about shooting videos from their homes. Meanwhile, the education department is open to individuals or organisations who are interested to improve the background music, visual compilation etc. "We will not provide any remuneration for the videos that you prepare. But we will definitely appreciate your contributions to this YouTube channel in the coming days. One can freely use the material that they prepare for the department's Youtube channel and post it on any platform. These videos will be later used in our schools to present them to children, " he explains, adding, "An actor or TV anchor or a radio jockey is also required to make narration for this programme. People can also specify or help with the names that we can use for this YouTube Channel."
Get ready to send your videos via e-mail to makkalavanissk@gmail.com / Google Drive / WhatsApp / Telegram. (080-22483040, Fax 080-22126718, 080-22483580.
