A community radio has helped Tumkur south educational district improve its position in SSLC results from tenth to ninth.
Exclusive programmes aired on Radio Siddhartha on 90.8 MH frequency with a coverage of 25-km radius have helped students, say experts.
Initially, the radio aired a 90-minute programme Shikshanavaani for around 15 days in which subject experts tutored students. Later, a phone-in programme was organised daily for a week.
The live programme received a good response and the questions ranged from ‘how to score good marks’ to ‘how to cope with exam phobia’ that were effectively answered, said Hoskere Rizwan Pasha, an expert.
Science teacher Ranganath told Express that he faced a lot of questions that were not a part of the exercise and students were eager to know more about those.
Programme executive of Radio Siddhartha Rashmi said the one-hour live programme had to be extended. “Listeners from around 58 villages said the programme was effective and helpful,” she claimed.
Deputy Director of Public Instruction Eshwaraiah said he extended all help for the programme as he felt it would be effective. He admitted that the community radio was one of the reasons for the improvement in results. “We have prepared an action plan to improve the results in areas where schools have performed poorly. No government schools have scored zero per cent,” he said.
Tumkur south educational district has improved its results from tenth place (83.98 per cent) last year to ninth (86.83 per cent) this time. Out of 24,059 students, 20,890 have cleared with 1,397 securing distinction, 9,355 first class, 4,809 second class and 6,494 third class.