In some parts of the world, a television in the classroom might be a diversion for students.

But in remote areas of the immense Amazon jungle in Brazil, it's an educational lifeline, a key tool for learning that helps break the tyranny of distance.

Some 2,500 primary school pupils in rural parts of the vast northern Acre state depend on video courses shown on small televisions in viewing rooms to keep up with their urban counterparts who have greater access to teachers, cultural excursions and libraries.

"Tele-learning" started five years ago, when authorities decided to put into practice ideas first formulated by Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire, who died in 1997, to counter an obvious shortfall in basic education.

Acre's governor, Jorge Vianna, described how a visit to a remote school in the forest rammed home the need to improve teaching methods.

"I remember visiting a school and meeting a girl of 19 years who was doing third grade for the fifth time. She told me she had already passed third grade, but as there were no more options or grades to go on to, she had to keep going back to the same level," he told AFP.

An agreement with the Roberto Marinho Foundation, named after the founder of Brazil's biggest private media group O Globo, opened the way for the introduction of video courses based on Sunday morning educational television shows.