Mumbai, May 29 (IANS): The Maharashtra government has sought time on the state-run Doordarshan National Channels and All India Radio to telecast-broadcast educational programmes for children in rural areas of the state during the ongoing lockdown period.

School Education Department Minister Varsha Gaikwad has requested Minister of Information & Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar to allot 12 hours on DD and two hours on AIR daily for the purpose.

In a letter to the Central minister on Wednesday, released today, she said all educational institutions are shut for the past 10 weeks and all students are at home as a precaution to maintain physical distancing intended to curb the spread of coronavirus.

"The situation has pushed us to close the schools a month before the summer vacation and a more prolonged lockdown means that our students are at a huge risk of losing significant instructional time," Gaikwad informed Javadekar.

Welcoming the Centre's recent initiative to provide time slots to states to transmit educational content, she said that state along with SCERT Maharashtra is devising means to support student learning, including promoting DIKSHA as a source of education via mobiles.

In the next academic year (2020-2021), Gaikwad said the state plans to broadcast 12 hours of educational content everyday through any two channels which come under the DD National Channel bouquet and two hours on AIR.

She said the state already has its virtual classroom studios from where it could beam live programmes with Centre's clearance.

For the purpose, the SCERT Maharashtra has already accumulated 1000-hours of educational content already for telecasting-broadcasting for the students in the next academic year.

An education department official said the AIR would be beneficial to reach out to tribals or students in remote villages where Internet and mobile connectivity could pose issues.