Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, the state with the highest literacy rate in India, has added another feather in its hat amid all challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, conducting over 6,000 online classes in which more than 43 lakh students from pre-primary standard to Class 12 attended.

The digital classes, titled 'First Bell', commenced from June 1, 2020, as an interim arrangement for regular classes, and are telecast through the government-owned KITE VICTERS educational channel, under the KITE (Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education), officials said.

The telecast of all classes for Class 10 was complete by January 17, and that of Class 12 by Saturday.

To date, the KITE has developed and broadcast 6,200 class videos as part of the First Bell programme -- over 3,100 hours of educational content.

The focus area for each subject was published by the General Education Department and based on that, the revision classes are being arranged from January 31 onwards.

"Initially, we planned the First Bell programme for a period of two months only but the Covid-19 situation demanded it to extend throughout the academic year", said K. Anvar Sadath, CEO, KITE.

"It was indeed a daunting task to develop the digital classes for all standards, especially for Plus Two in view of various combinations of subjects. But we were able to devise an all-inclusive digital class model to provide classes to all students without risking the loss of an academic year, to the satisfaction of students and teachers," Anvar added.

Kerala has already announced examinations for Class 10 and 12 students from March 17 onwards.

All class videos are available on the website of First Bell (firstbell.kite.kerala.gov.in), which is listed class-wise and episode-wise for easy navigation.

In addition to this, specific episodes including focus areas and the duration would also be made available in the portal, which would facilitate easy viewing of content for students preparing for the examination.

The subscriber count of the YouTube channel of VICTERS has crossed over 2.4 million. Apart from India, the classes were also viewed by hundreds of people from Middle East as well as from America and European region.

The classes are broadcast through the channel on a pre-defined schedule, which is also telecast live through the Facebook page and uploaded on the YouTube channel.