CBSE to install community radio for teachers, students and others

Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is installing a special radio facility for teachers, students and other concerned people. Official has confirmed that the proposal had been cleared in the recent Governing Body meeting of the board.

The CBSE would apply for a community radio license under the scheme. Technical experts and the stakeholders would be met during the next half year of advisory meetings to draft the application and have the content strategy translated. The budgeting for the project is also in progress.

A top CBSE official stated the programme would bring about improvement in board's communication channels. "We would announce the modalities of the programme to be telecast as soon as we get the licence," the official added.

CBSE has already introduced "Shiksha Vani," a podcast platform which was introduced to provide subject-based audio content for class 9 to 12 students. The platform was hosted on the Google Play Store and has released almost 400 episodes based on the NCERT syllabus.

The new radio for the community will operate differently from all the other media. It will be interactive and a live one that is capable of offering information, instruction, and education news in real time to the public. Programs will be particularly tailored for CBSE's huge and extensive group of Indian students.

After public and commercial radio, the low-power radio stations are meant to cater to local communities — by offering individuals a chance to hear and speak for themselves in their local languages and dialects. Therefore, unlike mainstream media, these stations bring to the limelight voices that are otherwise not heard, focusing on local issues like education, health, agriculture, and social awareness. Catering to the needs, there are some 540 licensed Indian radio stations, with most being operated by not-for-profit entities such as community societies, NGOs, and schools. Their mission is not to turn a profit — it is to bring people together. Community radio stations are bridging media with the needs and contexts of ordinary people, making media more contextual and proximate.

The government provides subsidy to such radio stations in rural and far-flung areas under different schemes and views them as a weapon of inclusive communication.

For CBSE, the shift can prove beneficial to its reach, particularly in non-penetration internet zones. With crores of students and teachers to reach out to, an FM channel can fill knowledge gaps and inject participation in education schemes.

And if planning and licensing process is conducted successfully, the CBSE community radio may be broadcasting soon, the first from an Indian national education board.