(MissionNewswire) In the wake of the extended lockdown in India due to the coronavirus pandemic, Radio Salesian and Salesian TV offer broadcast and podcast lessons for the University of North Bengal’s undergraduate and graduate programs. The virtual launch of “Radio Edu Pods,” the mass education project for college students, was held on May 1.

The lessons are available for free 24 hours a day, seven days a week on Salesian TV’s YouTube channel. The Monday to Friday radio broadcast and web transmissions are also provided at 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. on the Listen2MyRadio app.

“This no-cost mode of teaching and learning, which reaches the maximum number of students at any given time, is offered by faculty members of the University of North Bengal’s colleges,” said Father C. M. Paul, director of Radio Salesian.

Subjects currently featured on the Salesian TV YouTube channel include the English and Bengali languages, mass communication, sociology, history and philosophy. More subjects and lessons will be available in the coming days.

“The digital technology of using radio lessons on Salesian TV’s YouTube channel is a boon to the student community both in the hills and plains,” said Dr Thadathil, president of All India Association of Christian Higher Education.

The procedure of preparing lessons for radio is very simple. Radio Salesian Program Director RJ Samir explained, “All you have to do is to keep the lessons simple and focused, short and crisp, breaking it down to modules of 10 to 15 minutes duration and recording it on a mobile phone’s digital recorder. The secret of getting a clean and perfect audio is to record the entire lesson in a closed room (bedroom) which has curtains and minimum of ambient noise. In the plains, the summer heat and swirling noise of the fan will definitely affect audio quality, hence it is advisable to record in a quiet and cool corner.”

Radio Salesian 90.8 FM was established in 2016 and is the only college campus radio of North Bengal and entire northeast India. There are 64 colleges affiliated to the University of North Bengal offering 169 courses in 11 streams with some 30 faculty departments and 20 specializations.

India has the world’s fourth largest economy but more than 22 percent of the country lives in poverty. About 31 percent of the world’s multidimensionally poor children live in India, according to a report by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative. A multidimensionally poor child is one who lacks at least one-third of 10 indicators, grouped into three dimensions of poverty: health, education and standard of living.

Salesian missionaries living and working in India place special emphasis on rescuing and rehabilitating children engaged in child labor. There are Salesian-run programs throughout the country that have helped hundreds of thousands of vulnerable youth through the years, and this work continues today.

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ANS – India – Community Radio offers college lessons on YouTube

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