Thiruvananthapuram, Jul 4 (PTI) Pre-school children devoid ofTV or internet facilities would be provided with kits containing activity books, chart papers and crayons to ensure their educationis not disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic, Minister for Health, Women and Child Development, Veena George said on Sunday.

The minister said the kits would be distributed to 14,102 children across the state and kicked off the initiative by handing over a kit to a child at Kulasekharapathi in Pathanamthitta district here.

She noted that the distribution of the kits would be completed in the coming days.

Initially the Department of Women and Child Development had launched a program -- 'Kilikonchal' -- through Victer's Channel from June 2020 to ensure that the pre-school education of children was not disrupted during the COVID pandemic.

The second phase of the programme started in 2021.

However, it was found that many children could not watch the programme as they did not have internet or TV facility at home or due to lack of adequate signal strength, she said.

Therefore, the department came up with the scheme to make such children part of the pre-school education by providing them with the kits, the minister added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)