Parliamentary Panel of Senior Officials, Telecom News, ET Telecom

New Delhi: A parliamentary panel on Monday recommended the use of satellite television to senior officials of the Ministry of Education and the CBSE to fill the student learning gap caused by the closure of schools due to the pandemic of COVID-19, sources said. The panel also decided to convene officials from ISRO at its next meeting.

Senior officials from the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT), the Central Council for Secondary Education (CBSE) and the Ministry of Education tabled before the Standing Parliamentary Committee on Education, chaired by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, Monday.

The agenda for the meeting was “Plans to close the learning gap caused by the COVID-19 pandemic”.

Panel members, including Sahasrabuddhe, stressed that every effort should be made to fill the learning gap of students and strongly suggested the use of satellite TV such as Doordarshan DTH as it has more penetration than smartphones and does not require an internet connection, sources said.

Sahasrabuddhe pointed out that subject-specific lessons can be shown on specific channels in Doordarshan, also in regional languages, and that they can be watched by many students in remote areas, the sources said.

Panel members said this model has been adopted by Gujarat and Odisha and other states may implement it as well.

It was decided at the meeting that in addition to officials from the Ministry of Education, officials from the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and several states will be convened at the next panel meeting to discuss the use of satellite television to bridge the learning gap. students.