After a humble launch that came amid scepticism from various quarters, Tamil Nadu government’s Kalvi Tholaikatchi, the first exclusive educational channel launched by a State government in India, turned one on Wednesday.
Chennai:
Launched on August 26, 2019, by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, the channel started with a few programmes made at a small studio inside the Anna Centenary Library in Chennai in the initial period. Now, it has established several studios across the State and boasts of several hundred programmes that are benefiting lakhs students, especially from the government and aided schools, during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.
S Manimaran, a Class 10 student from a government-aided school in Pallavaram is among those who are benefitted by the educational programmes telecast by the channel. “Many of my schoolmates are regular viewers of the channel,” he added.
Due to lack of attractive programmes and poor link-up with local cable TV operators, the channel received only a lukewarm response at first. “However, after getting feedback from academicians and experts, we completely changed the programmes on a par with the private channels, which attracted students and as well as teachers,” L Sagayaraj, a senior official from the channel, told DT Next.
From only about 30 programmes, it now has more than 1,500, including lectures, students’ inventions, interviews with academicians, and question and answer sessions for classes 2 to 10, he said. “Initially, we had tied up only with State-owned Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable Television Corporation to telecast the programmes. Now we have partnered with more than 10 private channels, the latest being the agreement signed with Airtel DTH,” he said, adding that talks were also on with Reliance Jio.
After schools were forced to close down due to pandemic lockdown, it launched “Veetu Palli” (school @ home) for students from the State-run schools, as they do not have online classes as was being conducted by private institutions.
“After launching creative programmes as well as tying up with private players, several lakh government school students have begun tuning into the channel, especially during the pandemic,” said Tamil Nadu Teachers Association President PK Ilamaran.