ALBUQUERQUE – With New Mexico schools shut down for the rest of the school year because of the coronavirus outbreak, three public television stations on Monday will begin broadcasting class lessons for home learning for students in grades K-5.
The participating Public Broadcasting Service stations are KENW-TV at Eastern New Mexico University’s Portales campus, KNME-TV at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and KRWG-TV at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces.
The Albuquerque school district will provide four hours of instruction each weekday morning, which KENW called “an ambitious and vital new broadcast initiative.”
The daily lesson plans will be broadcast each day, and will then be available later for individual “on-demand lessons,” KNME said.
Academic subjects include English, math and science, according to the Albuquerque’ district’s website.
Schools statewide closed in March through the end of the school year to reduce the spread of the virus.
For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.
Albuquerque Public Schools Superintendent Rachel Reedy said in a March 27 letter that teaching and learning would continue despite the “devastating” shutdown. “It will just look a lot different during the next few months.”
Reedy said development of the district’s new learning plan was a challenge because of the need to limit gatherings to no more than five people and to constraints involving training, curriculum, technology, special needs, language barriers and “the emotional and social strain on students, families, and staff.”
Reedy said the Albuquerque district worked with the state Public Education Department “and many other districts on developing a plan that is accessible and equitable for all. “
