At a time when the educational institutes are closed due to COVID-19, the Tripura government has decided to launch a slew of new initiatives in the state.

These initiatives, Tripura education minister Ratan Lal Nath said, are being chalked out to encourage students to keep up with their studies.

"Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, schools and colleges have been closed down and the students are facing a lot of problems in understanding their lessons," Nath said.

"With an aim to mitigate this issue and encourage students to study, we have decided to launch a number of initiatives," he added.

"The new project has been titled Ektu Khelo, Ektu Padho and this will be launched on June 25 especially for the students up to Class VIII," Nath said.

The minister further informed that the project will be of immense help, especially to those students from the villages of the state who don't have access either to hi-speed internet or cable TV network.

He said that lessons and study materials are shared via WhatsApp and those with an android phone can access these materials.

He further informed that lessons and assignments are sent to students on mobile phones every morning.

Feedback on their performances is collected in the afternoon by the teachers and the academic coordinator, Nath said.

He further said that academic coordinators in various districts will share the content with headmasters of schools. The headmasters then engage teachers to monitor the process.

It may be mentioned here that Tripura has 4733 government schools with an overall student intake of of around 5 lakhs.

The Tripura education department, for the benefits of the students, has introduced a number of online programmes including online classes and sharing of recorded videos.

The recorded videos have been streamed on cable television channels and other social media platforms.