The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Nat Geo to give educational material

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Thursday, Feb 01, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Nat Geo to give educational material

Sangeeth Kurian

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Learning could not have got better. High-school students in Government schools across the State can soon view educational materials prepared by the National Geographic Channel.

A discussion in this regard is under way between representatives of the channel and officials of the Directorate of Public Instruction and its project IT@School.

Under the proposed plans, the U.S.-based television channel will provide supportive educational content of about 50-hour duration, which will be beamed to students in episodes through VICTERS (Virtual Classroom Technology on EDUSAT for Rural Schools), an education channel launched in the State last year.

The content, designed for students from classes 8 to 10, will cover subjects such as science, history, geography and mathematics. "We will beam the content in accordance with the subject and chapter taught at school," Director of Public Instruction M. Sivasankar said.

For instance, if there was a chapter on volcanoes, supportive materials would be aired at the time when it was taught, he added.

It is estimated that the proposed programme will benefit over 15-lakh students.

C.K. Sankaran Nair, Executive Director, IT@School, said: "At a time when schools in the private sector are making all out efforts to provide educational content of international quality to students, distributing educational programmes created by the National Geographic Channel is the easiest and cheapest means of ensuring similar quality to the students in Government schools."

He said the directorate had a fruitful discussion with the representatives of the channel. "They are quite keen on providing us the materials. We are looking for a three-year contract with the channel. Once we get the approval of the State Government, the memorandum of understanding will be signed," Mr. Sankaran Nair said.

The programme, proposed to be beamed from next academic year, will be aired three to five times a year.

Parallel Internet

IT@ School is also coming up with the idea of a parallel Internet for students in Government and aided schools in the State. As part of this project, an Eduserver will function as an information hub by providing subject-related material to students of each class, according to their requirements.

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