Around 87 per cent viewership for Telangana government's online classes on Doordarshan 

Chitra Ramachandran, Special Chief Secretary for Higher Education, Telangana said that the e-learning programme, which was launched by the State government got a great response from students and has 87 per cent viewership on the national broadcaster Doordarshan.

She said that the distance learning programme was launched in order to ensure that there are no learning gaps as schools are closed due to Coronavirus pandemic since March.

"The Chief Minister reviewed the situation a month ago and later it was decided to launch a programme under which students in government schools will be imparted education through e-learning or distance learning in order to ensure that there are no learning gaps. We got into action and are preparing digital content and graphics to our own teacher and we are ensuring that the quality education is being delivered to students," Ramachandran said.

"We were able to start it from first and the response was overwhelming and encouraging. We chose television along with internet platforms for distance learning as it has greater reach. There was 87 per cent viewership on Doordarshan and we are even broadcasting through T-SAT which is Telangana's government channel. We are also operating on T-SAT apps," she said.

The Special Chief Secretary said that teachers are being trained for the programme.

"We are teaching them in scriptwriting, how to prepare small video lessons and how to talk in front of a camera. We have a studio and the digital content is been prepared there. It turned out to be very good quality. We are very proud of that," Ramachandran said.

"We standardised the schedule from Class 6 to 12. We have a request for voice over and we started teaching the lessons in English and Urdu. We are equipping our teachers and they are being very well trained since March," she said.

"Everything was planned in detail. We are happy to say that it is a huge success and we have been able to realise the Chief Minister's vision."

She said that the programme will be continued even if the school opens.

"We will continue with the process. Once the government decides to open school, then this will be an added feather. These lessons are available on YouTube, T-SAT apps," she said.

She said that there will be an assignment-based assessment of the students and the plan will be put in place very soon. She asserted that digital content goes through detailed scrutiny.

Taking to Twitter, Shashi S Vempati, chief executive officer (CEO), Prasar Bharati said that indicators show strong viewership on DD Yadagiri Telangana for teleclasses past couple of days since they started.

"Leading indicators show strong viewership on DD Yadagiri Telangana for teleclasses past couple of days since they started," Vempati tweeted.