IIT-Bombay scraps all offline classes till year-end

MUMBAI: While the Covid-19 pandemic is showing no signs of slowing down in India, various educational, research institutions are having to evolve newer methods of teaching its students and completing syllabi. Meanwhile, the Indian Institute of Technology – Bombay (IIT-B) became the first major educational institute in the country to scrap all face-to-face lectures for the rest of the year.

Subhasis Chaudhuri, Director, IIT-B, in an announcement made late night on Wednesday, June 24, said that the institute would teach the next semester “purely in the online mode so that there is no compromise on the safety and well-being of the students”.

He went on to say that the staff and faculty at IIT-B are trying to rethink the way they impart education to its students. In order to avoid any further delays in starting the next semester, IIT-B decided to extensively work on shifting completely to online classes, the details of which will be informed to the students in due course of time.

This is the first time in the Institute’s 62-year-long history that a new academic year without students on campus. Other IITs are likely to follow suit with similar announcements in the near future. Noting that a considerable proportion of students at IITs come from economically weaker sections, the Institute has also called for raising funds to help bridge the technology gap between the students and the Institute. The money raised from these funds will be used to buy laptops and internet data plans for students so that they face no difficulty in attending online lectures regularly.

“We do not want a single student to miss out the learning experience for the lack of money. We have estimated that we need about Rs 5 crores to help those needy students. Our alumni have committed a good amount of support, but that is not enough for all these needy students and I solicit through this message your donations, however small it may be,” Chaudhuri wrote in his Facebook post. Subsequently, heads of different departments sent emails to all students enquiring who all do not have access to a personal computer or laptop and internet connection.