The Haryana government has entered into an agreement with Reliance Jio TV to facilitate a "distance education programme" for school students amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under the agreement, all four channels of EDUSAT will now be available on the Jio platform free of cost, said state Education Minister Kanwar Pal, according to a government press release.
"Haryana has entered into an agreement with 'Reliance Jio TV' under the Chief Minister's 'Distance Education Programme'," he said.
He said that this step of the state government will benefit about 52 lakh Hindi and English medium students of government and private schools under the Haryana School Education Board, CBSE and other boards.
The main objective of the state government is to impart education to every school student in the state, Pal said, adding that schools in Haryana are shut since March due to the situation arising out of the pandemic.
"With this new initiative, students will be able to watch all four channels of EDUSAT through TV, laptop, desktop, tablets and smartphones. Apart from this, the broadcast content on TV will be available on Jio-TV for a week so that students can watch the same according to their convenience and time, he said, as per the release.
Pal informed that there are about 94 lakh subscribers of Reliance Jio in Haryana.
"This makes it easy for most of the people of the state to access 'Reliance Jio TV', he said. He informed that separate educational material is being relayed to students who are preparing for competitive examinations like the JEE (Joint Entrance Examination) and the NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test).
This 'Distance Education Programme' has been going on since April 15, 2020. The new agreement will benefit students in remote areas, he said.
After the lockdown was imposed to control the spread of coronavirus, the Haryana government to ensure that academic work does not get disrupted had in April decided that students from classes I to XII in government schools will be taught through various e-learning platforms till the situation returns to normal.
