Kolkata: The West Bengal education department announced on Sunday that on-campus classes won’t resume at colleges and universities from December 1.
The department also said that the classes for the undergraduate session’s first semester will be held online.
Following a meeting between state education minister Partha Chatterjee and vice-chancellors of the state universities, it was also decided that admissions to undergraduate and postgraduate courses at the state universities will reopen once more for two weeks.
Chatterjee acknowledged that a large number of vacancies remained in some of the most prominent colleges of the state.
Universities were asked to begin the new academic year at their own convenience, which has raised the fear that there will be no uniformity in the session.
“The University Grants Commission (UGC) had asked the institutes to begin the new academic calendar from November 1, which was followed by most universities across the country. The Bengal government postponed it to December 1 citing the ongoing pandemic and the festival season. Now, at Sunday’s meeting, the VCs have been told to begin the new session as per their decision. If there is no uniformity, it may lead to problems later in running the semester,” a higher education department official was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.
State-run universities have also been allowed to curtail syllabus, if necessary, to complete the semesters. “Registrars should coordinate the attendance of non-teaching employees, we have been told. Also, all examinations are to be held online till a decision is taken,” a VC was quoted as saying by the daily.
The state had closed the admissions on October 30 and the registration was closed on November 30. Now, the admission process will restart on December 1 and end by December 15.
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