After IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, Madras also suspend physical classes, to conduct next semester online – Times Now

Indian Institute of Technology, IIT Bombay, had recently announced that it would not be conducting physical classes for the entire upcoming semester. The institute clearly mentioned that since the physical classes pose a health risk and nothing is more important than lives the classes would be conducted only through online mediums. Now two more IITs, IIT Delhi and IIT Madras have joined Bombay.

IIT Delhi along with IIT Madras has also suspended all physical lectures for the upcoming semester in view of COVID 19 pandemic. The institutes would offer all their programmes only via online mode. As it is, most IITs this year are not conducting face to face classes. IIT Delhi has decided not to open its campus before December this year. The director of the institute Ramgopal Rao said, “We do not have a choice this year. We will follow the sub committee’s report, which recommends online mode to conduct classes for the upcoming semester.” Read| IIT Delhi QS Ranking 2020-21: IIT Delhi slips 11 spots in ranking Director V. Ramgopal Rao explains gaps

Recently IIT Kharagpur also asked the students to vacate the campus hostel. Almost 400 students are stuck in the campus hostels and are asked to vacate them by June 20 only to come back in September. IIT Kharagpur registrar B N Singh said,  “They are our children. If they have some difficulty in shifting immediately, we cannot force them. But since the next semester is more than two months away, there will be little academic activity for them.”

A report was prepared by a subcommittee of the six IITs in wake of Coronavirus pandemic. It has been submitted to the standing committee of IIT council in June. As mentioned by a leading daily, the report has suggested that the admissions should be as per the schedule of JEE Main and the interviews must be conducted online to start the new programme in December 2020- January 2021. The report also suggests a reduction in the PG programme duration in all IITs. However, the IITs would review the situation again in October 2020. The students can follow the official website of IITs for regular updates.