Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Monday, launched the State government's new television channel called Kalvi Tholaikkaatchi (Education TV). The channel, which is targeted at school-going students, will mostly have educative shows for children.
Speaking at the launch, Palaniswami said that this is a first of its kind initiative, in which a school education department has its own educative television channel. "Education is like eyesight. The state government has taken this initiative to support students. The students can now learn from home," he said. Unique World Record, a world record book published in India, also presented an award to the State
government for launching the channel.
While about half of all programmes will be based on the state government's curriculum, the rest will help students prepare for NEET and JEE among other competitive exams, said a statement issued by the State government. A team of 25 teachers will run the channel and 32 programmes will be broadcast in its first phase.
Programmes will be telecast on the channel from 6 am to 9.30 pm. The channel went live on Monday morning and the school education department has instructed all schools to enable cable connections in
the school campuses so that children may watch the channel.
Further, in schools where cable connection is not possible, the internet connection will be set up so that students can watch programmes on the YouTube channel of Kalvi Tholiakatchi, said school education minister KA Sengottaiyan, speaking at the launch. He further said that students can use exclusive Kalvi Tholaikatchi app to watch programmes as well.
The channel will also broadcast interviews of the school education minister, shows on schemes provided by the school education department, segments on Thirukkural and other literary content. The shows in the channel have been selected to benefit students, parents and teachers in schools, said a senior official from the School Education Department. The TV station will feature advertisements on the various government schemes that people children can benefit from, subject-based training videos, board exam preparation and employment-related shows.
While the government had planned a launch early this year, it was delayed owing to the preparatory work. The channel may also soon be made available through mobile applications on Android and iOS platforms, said an official from the school education department.