COVID-19: Allow all staff to work from home, MHRD directs institutions

NEW DELHI: The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has asked all the higher education and school education regulatory authorities to ask institutions to allow their staff to work from home till March 31. Covering both teaching and non-teaching staff, this measure is meant to control the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

Amit Khare, secretary, for both higher and school education, addressed his letter to all autonomous institutions under the ministry including the University Grants Commission (UGC), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

Earlier, on March 19, MHRD instructed UGC, AICTE, NCTE, NIO, NTA, CBSE and other regulatory bodies under it to postpone all examinations to April. Following the order, CBSE postponed its Class 10 and Class 12 board exams and the National Testing Agency also postponed JEE Main exam.

MHRD letter also asks teachers to utilise this period for academic activities like creating online content, academic programme or do research. The letter also asks institutions to allow students who are still in their hostels should be allow to stay in their hostels and take necessary precautions. Since coronavirus outbreak in India, most of the higher education institutions have postponed their examinations and got their hostels vacated.

The Ministry in order to push its digital literacy programme during this period has also asked schools to promote utilisation of its e-learning platforms, DIKSHA and e-PATHSHALA among students. As per the Ministry notification, DIKSHA has over 80,000 e-books for class 1-12 prepared by CBSE and NCERT, while e-PATHSHALA has around 2000 audio and video learning content.

Also read:

• Coronavirus (COVID-19) Outbreak: Latest Updates
• Coronavirus: Reschedule all university exams and evaluation, says UGC

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