On Sunday, Union Minister for Human Resource Development (HRD) Ramesh Pokhriyal assured students that the Ministry would ensure that none suffers any loss academically, in case the 21- day nationwide lockdown was extended in the wake of the Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak. The pandemic has infected 3,374 people and has claimed 77 lives till now.
https://twitter.com/timesofindia/status/1246744214253105155?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw“We are prepared to ensure there is no academic loss to students if schools, colleges remain shut beyond April 14. The Government will make a decision on April 14 whether to reopen schools, colleges after reviewing COVID-19 situation”, Ramesh Pokhriyal was quoted as saying.
The HRD Minister said that the Department was reviewing the course of action that several educational institutions had taken, post the lockdown. He added that the safety of teachers, as well as that of students, was of primary importance to the Government.
On March 30, Shekhar Gupta’s ThePrint published an article claiming that an unnamed government official had said that the 3-week lockdown announced from 24th March 2020 may be extended by a week. In fact, ThePrint claimed that three unnamed government officials claimed that the migrants leaving their place of work and moving back homes en masse ‘is leading to a rethink regarding the duration’. However, Prasar Bharati said that they got in touch with the cabinet secretary who expressed surprise at such claims. According to Prasar Bharati, there is no such plan of extending the lockdown.