IIT Kharagpur has given the option to first-year students to attend online classes from the campus from next month. Those willing to come to the campus will be lodged in the hostel rooms vacated by second-year students.
The construction of the hostel meant for the first-year students could not be completed on time because of the pandemic, sources said. Now that the pandemic-induced restrictions have been withdrawn, construction of the hostel has resumed, an IIT Kharagpur official said.
The second-year students have been asked to vacate the hostel by the third week of April. The first-year students will be brought in phases.
“The first-year students will be called to the campus in phases from May-end. The second-year students have been asked to vacate the hostel to make space,” the dean of students, Dhrubajyoti Sen, said on Sunday.
“This option (of attending online classes from the campus) is being extended so that those who are facing resource constraints at home can attend the classes.”
The students are attending classes online as a precaution against Covid. The second-year students will spend the summer recess at home and come back once third-year classes start.
The second, third and fourth-year students were brought to the campus so they could write the end-semester exams in offline mode from April 7 to 14. But they finally wrote the exams in online mode after being given the option.
IIT Kharagpur registrar Tamal Nath said the construction of the new hostel had been delayed because of the pandemic.
“We hope to end the work on time,” he said. If the work is not completed on time, the students who will be admitted in August will be accommodated in rented places, an official said.
The construction of a hostel became imperative as the number of students increased with the introduction of the quota for the economically weaker section within the general category in 2019.