Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi (MS)

New Delhi, Apr 26: Two committees appointed by the University Grant Commission (UGC) have recommended the educational departments and higher education institutions to start the coming academic year from September of this year instead of the usual month of July. The recommendation comes in the wake of the coronovirus pandemic that has brought the entire country to a standstill.

UGC had asked the two committees to assess the educational loss, issues related to the same and online education option in case the lockdown continues for indefinite time. The committee headed by vice-chancellor of Haryana university R C Kuhad was given the responsibility of looking into the alternative options of conducting examinations in the wake of the coronoavirus lockdown situation and also to set the new academic year calendar.

The responsibility of making the online education option further better was given to committee headed by Nageshwara Rao, vice-chancellor of Indira Gandhi Open University. Both these committees submitted their report to UGC on Friday April 24.

One of the committees has recommended to start the next academic year from September. The other committee has recommended that the examinations can be conducted in the university itself if they have necessary infrastructure for the same. The committee has advised that it should not be mandated for the universities to take exams online as the local environment, composition of students, diversity, preparedness of the learners, current infrastructure and technology support are not uniform.

The officials of human resources development ministry said that they will issue a notification in this regard within a week after studying the reports submitted by both committees.