Twenty-nine percent school students of Tripura could not access both mobile phones and cable television to continue their studies amidst Covid-19 pandemic, according to a survey conducted by Education Department.
The survey stated that there are 3,22,297 students studying in Grade I to VIII in different government schools of the state. Of the total, 1,11,618 students have smartphones, 1,16,666 have ordinary mobile phones and 1,80,059 have cable network in their homes.
Total 1,96,389 students could access internet in their smartphones.
On the other hand, 94,013 students don’t have any kind of phones and total 1,42,238 students don’t have cable TV network.
So, the state Education Department is contemplating to start neighbourhood classes with one teacher and five students’ ratio from next August 18 so that all students especially those 29% students could continue their classes.
“The classes would be conducted maintaining social distance till resumption of the classes in schools. We are planning to start neighbourhood classes from August 18,” said an official of Education Department.
Soon after Covid-19 lockdown was imposed since March, the Education Department started video lecture sessions in local TV channels, online classes and also SMS based classes for the students. The SMS based interactive classes were started as most students don’t have smartphones and internet connectivity.
The Education Department also launched a Student Helpline call centre recently so that Grade I to XII students could get academic counselling and also advices of psychologists or doctors to combat depression by dialling 0381-2410053 in any day of a week from 10 AM to 4 PM.
