No holding back exams or academic activity: Karnataka Deputy CM

Karnataka government on Saturday made it clear that it would not hold back any examination or stop academic activities due to Covid-19.

"The examinations at university-level, including degree, post-graduation, engineering, diploma and all other courses, will be conducted as per schedule,' Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan told reporters.

Narayan, who holds the higher education portfolio, said the academic activities for the year 2021-22 have already been delayed and there should not be further delay. If delayed, the cycle of course period, test, results, employment, further studies would get cut, he said.

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Measures have been taken to ensure the academic activities for the year 2021-22 are not affected, he said. "After the completion of the examinations that are being conducted now, there will be no summer holidays. Functioning of the classes will begin immediately and there will be both offline and online classes," he said.

Online classes would be started quite early, Narayan said adding that it would be mandatory for students either to attend online or offline classes. He, however, said the universities and colleges have to follow the standard operating procedure to check the spread of the disease. According to him, the Integrated Learning Management System (LMS) has already been implemented in view of Covid-19. "Students are facilitated to learn from the locations wherever they are and 2.70 lakh tablet PCs have been distributed," Narayan pointed out.