IIT-Bombay scraps face-to-face lectures till 2020, opts for online classes

Amid rising coronavirus COVID-19 cases in different parts of the country, including Mumbai, the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B) on Wednesday (June 24)  became the first major institute to scrap all face-to-face lectures for the rest of 2020 "so that there is no compromise on the safety and well-being of the students". 

IIT Bombay Director Professor Subhasis Chaudhuri posted a message on Facebook on Wednesday saying the decision was made "after a long deliberation". "For IIT Bombay, students are the first priority. We took the first step in India in concretely deciding how we must bring a closure to the current semester to help our students," Professor Subhasis Chaudhuri wrote in the post.

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"But given the current condition of the pandemic, how do we plan for the next semester for our students? Again, after a long deliberation in the Senate, we have decided today that the next semester will be run purely in the online mode so that there is no compromise on the safety and well-being of the students," he added.

Notably, the semester for undergraduate and post-graduate courses is scheduled to begin in July. In his post, Chaudhuri has also made an appeal for donation for students "from economically less privileged families".

"A large section of our students come from economically less privileged families and would require a helping hand to equip them with the IT hardware (i.e. laptops and broadband connectivity ) to take these online classes," the post read.

"We have estimated that we need about Rs 5 crores to help those needy students. We look forward to your overwhelming support to help these bright young minds to continue their learning without any further hindrances or delays," Chaudhuri wrote.