DSERT to take students’ programme off AIR

The Department of State Educational Research and Training (DSERT) has decided to discontinue one of its successful programmes aired on All India Radio (AIR) for the last 15 years for the benefit of students.

DSERT, in association with Akashavani, had started ‘Chinnara Chukki- Chukki Chinna- Keli Kali’ in 2004 under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) when T M Vijay Bhaskar was the principal secretary of the department of primary and secondary education. Under this, radio sets were distributed to all 55,600 government schools across the state.

According to the DSERT officials, it has been decided to discontinue the programme from 2020-21 academic year following fund crunch. However, the two-month programme, exclusively for students appearing for SSLC examinations, will not be aired from this year itself. “It was an SSLC textbook based programme for students, giving them tips on examinations. As the question paper pattern has changed this year, we have not decided anything about the programme,” an official said.

They said,”The syllabus, being followed for the radio programme is also outdated now.”

The DSERT was spending Rs 80 lakh on this programme every year. It focused on students in class 1 to 9 covering two or three chapters at one session for one hour.