School and college students will lose their summer break as a part of Coronavirus lockdown

Mar 26, 2020, 11:48 IST

After extending the filing of IT returns till June 30, the Indian government is planning to revise the academic year as well — both for schools and colleges.
The government is now planning to compensate the lockdown period with the summer break given to students and start the academic session after the situation normalises.
The development comes after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown in the wake of Coronavirus.
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After extending the IT return filing date till June 30, the Indian government is planning to revise the academic year as well — both for schools and colleges.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) directed all the autonomous educational bodies — including the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), University Grants Commission (UGC), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) — to come up with an alternate academic calendar.

The development comes after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown in the wake of Coronavirus. This will impact the learning calendar for students. Usually, the academic session for schools affiliated to CBSE start in the first week of April and then continues in July after the summer break.

“On the orders of the minister, we sent a circular to all the states and autonomous bodies. It was based on the orders of the MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs). Autonomous bodies and NCERT have been asked to draft alternate academic calendars,” the Ministry confirmed.

Earlier, the HRD Ministry also directed all the educational institutions to reschedule the board and final examinations after March 31. This was applicable to all institutions and boards including CBSE, university exams and entrance.

The government is now planning to compensate the lockdown period with the summer break given to students and start the academic session after the situation normalises.

The ministry had earlier directed the National Testing Agency and other governing bodies to defer the entrance exams as well — including the engineering entrance JEE Mains. Earlier, the exam was scheduled between April 5 and April 11, 2020.

“Certain competitive examinations like JEE Mains require examinees to travel to other centers and in some cases even to other cities, to appear in the said examination. Also, the dates may clash with rescheduled CBSE and other board exams. Therefore, JEE Mains should be rescheduled and a new date will be announced on March 31, after re-assessment of the situation,” the ministry noted.

The new exam dates haven’t been announced yet. Moreover, it is yet to be announced if the medical entrance — National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) — will also get rescheduled.

Given the lockdown, the MHRD and these autonomous bodies will also work from home to come up with a plan.

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