Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday has directed state officials to start online classes in all educational institutions. The online classes will also be held for secondary and higher education courses while the nation remains under lockdown due to the Wuhan coronavirus.
According to the reports, the decision to start online classes in the state came as all the educational institutions across the country have remained closed for at least three weeks in view of the nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Speaking to the media, Awanish Awasthi, the Additional Chief Secretary of the state, said that the Chief Minister has directed officials to start online education in primary, secondary, higher, technical, professional, medical, nursing and other institutions. He also added that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath directed officials to make permanent the model for online studies by preparing e-content and taking other initiatives.
Awasthi added that online classes have already started in higher education institutions and nearly 80,000 students participated in these on Tuesday.
Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma, who is also the education minister, said directions were being issued to start online classes for students from class 9 to 12.
“Classes will be held through WhatsApp and other e-learning tools. For classes 6 to 9, we are drawing up an action plan. Education will also be given through the Diksha portal. We are also mulling the proposal of education through Doordarshan,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Lucknow University has also decided to start online classes for students. The professors said around 80-90 per cent of the curriculum of undergraduate and postgraduate courses has been completed and 45-50 per cent of the remaining part was done in online classes during lockdown.
Governor Anandiben Patel, the Chancellor of all state universities, has constituted a seven-member committee to give recommendations on holding online classes and examinations in the 2020-21 academic calendar in view of the disruption of studies and exams due to lockdown. The committee is headed by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University vice-chancellor Professor Vinay Pathak.
The Lucknow University has also formed a similar panel to know whether the university has the logistics to conduct online examinations or will it have to wait for the lockdown to be lifted. Even, the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has already started preparations to conduct online examinations, particularly for final year students.