THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even as the government is taking steps to strengthen online education in the state through the ‘Vidyakiranam’ project, classroom-based instruction will be resumed as soon as the situation is conducive, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has assured.
He was inaugurating 92 school buildings, 48 higher secondary labs and three higher secondary libraries, constructed at a cost of Rs 214 crore under the 100-day action programme of LDF government 2.0. The chief minister also laid the foundation stone for 107 new school buildings, to be built at a cost of Rs 124 crore, on the occasion.
While lauding the efforts of individuals and institutions to pool in digital devices for schoolchildren, Pinarayi reminded that international studies have shown that online education does have its share of problems. Pinarayi noted that 45 crore children in South Asian countries including India do not have access to the internet.
Quoting a study by UNICEF, the chief minister said the education of 25 crore children in the country was adversely affected when classroom-based education was disrupted during the Covid-related lockdown.
“We can strengthen online education by all means possible. However, we are not compulsorily advocating it. We will resume classroom-based instruction as soon as it is possible,” he said.
He said all schools in the state will be transformed into centres of excellence so that financially backward families can benefit the most out of it. The government has been engaged in improving the infrastructure facilities and academic standards in schools. He added that in the general education sector alone, infrastructure development works to the tune of Rs 4,000 crore were carried out during the previous government’s tenure.