Karnataka to reopen colleges from October 1, online classes begin soon

Karnataka’s Deputy Chief Minister C N Ashwathnarayan who also holds the Higher Education, IT & BT, Skill Development portfolios has announced that the state will commence the academic year for degree colleges in the state starting September 1, with online classes and then in October offline classes (in-person) would commence.

In a series of tweets, the minister said, “We have decided to use the online medium to get the ball rolling on all academic activities from next month as we will need to conduct a few degree exams in September.”

Even as he gave a timeline for resumption of classes, the minister, however, cautioned that the state was also awaiting detailed guidelines from the Centre regarding the resumption of offline classes and said the state would follow any additional directions that may come from them.

Asserting that the Karnataka government was working with the sole intent of ensuring a bright future for students, Ashwathnarayan said, “Once the academic year begins, final year exams will be scheduled for all undergraduate, diploma and engineering students. Backlog exams will also be conducted accordingly.”

If the government goes ahead with the plan, the state is likely to be the first in the country to reopen in-class and in-person coaching. Usually, the academic year for colleges in the state starts from June but this year, it has been delayed due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Source: HT