DU suspends online classes till May 16 due to Covid surge

“In view of sudden surge in Covid-19 cases, online teaching shall remain suspended till May 16, 2021,” read the order signed by DU registrar Vikas Gupta.

The Delhi University administration on Tuesday suspended all online classes till May 16 and rescheduled all final-year exams to be held in that period, owing to the severity of the ongoing Covid-19 surge in the Capital, after appeals from students and faculty members. The move comes days after the university deferred the final-year undergraduate examinations, which were to begin on May 15.

HT on April 29 reported that first-year undergraduate students of several DU colleges asked their principals to suspend all online learning activities for at least two weeks. (HT file photo)

“In view of sudden surge in Covid-19 cases, online teaching shall remain suspended till May 16, 2021,” read the order signed by DU registrar Vikas Gupta.

Following this order, students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) also demanded the same for the varsity’s postgraduate students. Hundreds of JNU students are scheduled to appear for their end-semester exams this month. However, the university’s administration has made no announcement yet.

Later in the day, the Union education ministry asked all central universities to postpone offline exams scheduled in May. “The online exams may however continue,” higher education secretary Amit Khare said in the letter to all centrally funded institutes on Monday. “The situation will be reviewed in the first week of June and appropriate decisions conveyed.”

“The administration should facilitate voluntary revision or doubt-clearing sessions (without attendance), which could be arranged between small groups of willing and healthy students and teachers, so that those who have missed their classes till now can cover the syllabus and are on an equal footing with their classmates by the end of the two-week class suspension,” said Kshitij Jain, a first-year student of St Stephen’s College.