Beyond classrooms: Learning via YouTube becomes a hit among kids

A year after the State Council of Education Research and Training Tamil Nadu (SCERT) released lessons for Classes 1 to 5 on YouTube, the videos seem to have garnered a huge following among students. 

The subject of the videos includes Tamil, English, Maths, Social Science and Environmental Science have been viewed by lakhs of visitors. Similarly, Tamil Nadu Education Department’s YouTube channel that has educative videos on several subjects too have attracted lakhs of school children. 

Speaking about this, a senior SCERT official told DTNext that something visual in the subject helps in increasing the students’ interest and keeps them engaged. 

“We have uploaded Tamil poems recorded in a dramatic way so that children can understand it easily,” the official said. Stating that some students learn better by watching than reading, he said the videos puts the information into an easy, well-organised format. 

“In the videos, especially trained teachers have explained the subject as if it was being taught in the classroom,” he said. According to the official, the videos also make it easy to send links of subjects or specific topics to the student or keep track of it in case the students has a doubt. 

“My son used to find it difficult to memorise lessons in Tamil. But, after watching the YouTube video twice, he is able to understand and learn it quickly,” S Gopalan, the father of a Class 4 student said. He also said that his friends’ children too benefitted from the videos as they were explained in Tamil and were quite easy to understand. 

A video on solving a simple, compound and complex sentence in English was till Wednesday viewed by 2,80,868 people. 

One of the comments by a viewer Yuga Madhavi, read: “I am blessed to have a teacher like you, maám”. Similarly, another video explaining sentence pattern by a teacher also had 1.42 lakh views and the comments section was filled with words of appreciation.