COIMBATORE: With the State reverting to the online mode of teaching once again due to the spiralling of Covid-19 cases, the focus is on Kalvi Tholaikaatchi, a free-to-air television channel run by the government for school students.
Despite being a powerful medium, the channel does not have the desired impact on students because of poor packaging of content and some technical issues, allege teachers.
K Saravanan (name changed), a teacher in a middle school in Coimbatore, told The New Indian Express, "The lessons are not telecast as per schedule because of which students do not get what they want on time. To offset this, video lessons are hosted in the channel's official YouTube page. Here again, students are put to difficulty as the play list of files/lessons is not in a sequence."
A technical staff from Kalvi channel, on condition of anonymity, said, "At the time of preparing for the channel launch, in 2019, we proposed to create an app. A sum of Rs 7 lakh was allotted to design and develop the app through a private firm. But the move was cancelled because of bickering among officials."
He said the government should revive the plan for the app. "Some private and a few government school teachers are earning money by running a fake Kalvi channel app. They are charging money from students by stating that they can follow Kalvi channel live through the app, and are monetising the hits under Google partnership programme. Believing in them, several students are using this app and are paying for old video lessons," he added.
Art Teacher Welfare Association president SA Rajkumar alleged that a few school teachers are uploading Kalvi channel videos on their websites that are monetised by Google AdSense and sharing the link in students’ and teachers' WhatsApp groups for earning money.
He said students are forced to see advertisements for gaming and dating applications, which distract them and affect their future. He urged the school education department to take stringent action against teachers who are using Kalvi channel video lessons' commercially.
When contacted, joint director of school education department, K Sridevi who is also the special officer for Kalvi channel, said she would initiate corrective measures after consulting with senior officials in the school education department. Repeated attempts to reach education department commissioner R Nandakumar went in vain.