(Image source from: indiatvnews.com)

Karnataka’s Deputy CM Dr. CN Ashwath Narayan on Wednesday announced that all the college classes will commence from October and students should attend classes in person.

The higher education minister of Karnataka, Dr. Ashwath Narayan announced on Wednesday that the online classes for various degree courses will commence from September 1 and the offline classes will commence from October 1.

He said that the students are expected to attend the classes in person.

The Deputy Chief Minister wrote on Twitter that the department is awaiting detailed guidelines from the central government regarding the resumption of offline classes as well as few degree examinations that are scheduled to be conducted in September.

Therefore, the government has decided to get the ball rolling on all academic activities online from next month.

The state government has already made comprehensive arrangements for starting the online classes following the guidelines by the UGC.

The Karnataka government will additionally follow all the directions and advice from the central government as and when they come.

Along with the commencement of the new academic year for various degrees, the state government will also conduct the final year examinations for all the undergraduate, diploma and engineering students.

Additionally, the exams for those students who hold backlogs will also be conducted.

The decision to start the new academic year through offline classes and to conduct the final year exams amid COVID-19 has been taken keeping in mind the bright future of all the students in the state.

Narayan also said that the state government has successfully conducted the CET exams for more than 1.94 lakh students. Moreover, 63 COVID-19 positive students have achieved good ranks in the exam by taking the exam confidently.

He said that when the reality is so conducive, he doesn’t understand why students are opposing the NEET exam from being conducted.

He has also raised suspicions that there might be something fishy regarding the whole NEET and the JEE exams issue and said that some individual groups might might want the seats to be allocated through an opaque system rather than on the basis of merit.

Narayan added that some vested interests have been trying to interrupt NEET exams since the beginning. There is a huge system behind it opposing NEET from the start and those wishes will not be fulfilled.

He emphasized the importance of NEET exam by saying that it is a well structured exam that is designed for students to take up admissions throughout the country with just one mere test.

The Karnataka state government is prepared for the test and would conduct it smoothly.

It has been 5 months since the schools and colleges have been shut due to the noel coronavirus pandemic in the country.

By Gayatri Yellayi