HYDERABAD: Despite adjusting academic calendars, eliminating 30 per cent of the syllabus and reducing holidays, the academic year 2019-20 - although saved - was delayed.
Now, the Telangana State Council of Higher Education (TSCHE) is scrambling to save the 2020-21 academic year as educational institutions have closed again, leading to the fear that this academic year may be delayed as well.
Telangana is currently seeing a weekly spike of 55 per cent COVID-19 cases, and has reported 2,744 positive cases in the last seven days (between March 24 and 18). "We have to wait till cases come down for exams to resume at State universities. The problem is, we don't know when the second COVID wave will subside. We can only wait and hope. The education system is seeing a cascading effect already," said TSCHE chairman Papi Reddy.
"The situation in higher education after the closure of educational institutions is worrisome. We will try our best to save the current academic year. This is, however, totally subjected to the trajectory of the second COVID-19 wave," he added.
The Higher Education Department, School Education Department and Board of Intermediate Education have all made it clear that there is no clarity on when educational institutes will be allowed to reopen. According to them, the State government’s priority now is to save students from contracting the virus.