The Week In Education: Colleges stay closed; students help find oxygen

NEW DELHI: Over the past week, as the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths hit record high, many ministers have tested positive for COVID-19. Education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, Rajasthan education minister Govind Singh Dotsara and Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Dinesh Singh are all under isolation after catching the coronavirus..

States have extended closure of schools and colleges. Students and staff across universities have come forward to help COVID-19 patients find hospital beds, oxygen tanks and medicines.

COVID-19 has claimed hundreds of teachers across the country, most noticeably in Uttar Pradesh where they were deployed as polling staff in the recently-concluded panchayat elections. In a new series, Careers360 is telling the stories of some of them and the communities they have left behind. Read the first two parts here:

• Uttar Pradesh Panchayat Elections 2021: Teachers’ unions left counting the dead
• ‘We are reeling’: One Delhi zone lost 3 teachers to COVID-19 in a week

These were the most important developments this week.

CBSE Class 10 board exam: assessment criteria

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) announced the assessment criteria for the cancelled CBSE Class 10 examination. The 80 marks usually allotted to the CBSE Class 10 board exam will now be awarded on the basis of mid-term exams, pre-board exams and tests. The CBSE Class 10 result 2021 is expected by the third week of June.

Board, University exams postponed

Delhi University has decided to take stock of the exam schedule, amid demands for postponement from students due to a spike in COVID-19 cases in the country. The university is slated to hold online exams for final year undergraduate and postgraduate students between May and June.

Madhya Pradesh Board has decided to postpone the Classes 10 and 12 exams for a month, the exams were scheduled to begin from May 1 and April 30, 2021 respectively.

The Assam Higher Secondary Education Council has postponed the higher secondary first-year exam 2021 -- Class 11 -- scheduled to be conducted from May 4.

The Consortium of National Law Universities (CNLU) has extended the application date for CLAT 2021 till May 15, 2021.

Following the Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) decision, some states have announced they will promote students in junior classes without board examinations. The Telangana government has decided to promote Classes 1 to 10 students without examination. The marks of Class 10 students will be decided on the basis of “objective criteria”, which will be developed by the state SSC board.

Madhya Pradesh Board of Secondary Education has decided to evaluate Class 10 students as per the norms adopted by the CBSE class 10 students.,

COVID-19: Schools, colleges to remain closed

Some states have extended the closure of educational institutions, which were earlier closed till April 30.

• The Himachal Pradesh government has extended the closure of all educational institutions till May 10.

• All educational institutions in Haryana will remain shut till May 31.

• The Nagaland government has declared summer vacation in all schools and colleges with immediate effect.

Jamia Millia Islamia university in Delhi has also announced summer vacations from May 1, however online teaching and open book exams will continue.

The Jammu and Kashmir administration has issued an order stating that teachers who were going to educational institutes under the 'in-campus in-person' teaching policy will now conduct online classes from their homes in view of a spike in COVID cases.

COVID Innovation

As the second wave of the pandemic has hit the nation badly, many educational institutions have stepped up to provide support to families looking for hospital beds, oxygen, medicines or mental health support -- all in short supply.

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur has created a website to provide authentic and verified leads related to various supplies required by families suffering from COVID-19 infections. The students of Miranda House, DU, have a similar initiative.

A professor from IIT Bombay has found a way to convert industrial nitrogen units into oxygen units by fine-tuning the existing nitrogen plants.

Delhi University has set up a COVID-19 isolation centre with a capacity of 180 beds in Dwarka. One of the constituent colleges of the university, Lakshmibai College has also announced it is starting an isolation centre as a tribute to a staff-member who died from the infection.

Jawaharlal Nehru University announced that it will organize a three-day COVID-19 vaccination camp on the campus for its eligible employees and their dependents. And Aligarh Muslim University, which includes a medical college, will is setting up an oxygen generation plant.

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