- Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay first major institute to scrap face-to-face lectures this year
- IIT Bombay will teach the next semester of the new academic year completely online
- Institute seeks donations to help underprivileged students buy laptops and internet data plan to access online classes.
- No compromise on the safety and well being of the students
Mumbai, Maharashtra: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Mumbai has become the first major educational institution in the country to scrap all face-to-face lectures for the rest of the year due to the COVID19 situation.
“IIT Bombay will teach the next semester completely online”
Now looking at the Covid-19 outbreak in the country, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, will conduct the next semester of the new academic year completely online.
Director Subhasis Chaudhuri, said the institute would teach the next semester “purely in the online mode so that there is no compromise on the safety and well being of the students” in an announcement made late Wednesday night.
“The COVID Pandemic has made us at IIT Bombay rethink the way we impart education to our students. To ensure that our students begin the academic year without further delay, we are planning on extensive online classes details of which will be informed to all students in due course of time,” he wrote in a Facebook post shared close to midnight
“IIT Bombay has been shut since March 14 and early summer vacation was announced from April 1 to May 31″
IIT Bombay has been shut since March 14 and early summer vacation was announced from April 1 to May 31. However, owing to continuing lockdown, any classes haven’t resumed yet.
While classes for the spring semester of 2020 had been concluded prior to the shutdown, exams were pending. On May 17, the administration announced an elaborate scheme to do away with spring semester exams and promote students based on their scores in the previous semester.
And as the autumn semester set to begin soon, the institute administration is making all possible efforts to equip students for online classes.
Also in a first-of-its-kind campaign, the administration is raising funds through crowdsourcing to provide IT hardware such as laptops and broadband connectivity to students from marginalised communities. The institute aims to raise Rs 5 crore through donations for the purpose. “Our alumni has already provided a decent amount but we still need more to make sure that no student is left out,” said Chaudhuri. Donors will be entitled to tax benefits under section 80G of the Income Tax Act.
70 final year undergraduate and postgraduate students are still residing in hostels as they could not leave for home during the lockdown. Now they all have been asked to vacate the hostel premises to make room for the next year.
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