COVID-19: Education minister to meet IIT, NIT, IISER, IISc heads today

NEW DELHI: The Union education minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ will meet heads of the top technical institutions to discuss COVID-19 management and online learning among other matters on Thursday.

The meeting will be attended by directors of various Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), National Institutes of Technology (NITs), Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER), and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore.

Pokhriyal will also address issues like implementation of the National Education Policy, or NEP 2020, in these institutions virtually at 11:30 am.

I will be meeting Directors of IITs, IITs, NITs, IISER & IISCs with an agenda of discussing COVID-19 Management, Online Learning and the latest status of Implementation of #NEP2020 at 11:30 AM tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/7l5KqnhaDV

— Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank (@DrRPNishank) May 19, 2021

Earlier on Monday, Pokhriyal held a review meeting with education secretaries of states and union territories of India. His meeting with vice-chancellors of central universities, originally scheduled for Tuesday, was later postponed.

Amid the raging second wave of coronavirus, the minister enquired about the various measures adopted by states on the COVID-19 situation and online education. It was decided at the meeting that special grants will be provided to schools for sanitation and hygiene and teachers, grants for awareness on safety and security in online mode, and help them use online means of education.

In the meeting, the education minister informed state secretaries that an ad-hoc grant of Rs 5,228 crore has been released under Samagra Shiksha and an amount of Rs 2,500 crore will be released soon to ensure continuity of various educational initiatives by the states and UTs.

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