The Tripura education department has promoted all students from classes I to IX and class XI to the next class. The online classes for students began on Sunday on 14 local news channels.

Education minister Ratan Lal Nath told reporters, “The examinations for classes I to IX were held before the announcement of the lockdown. So we have decided to promote them to the next class. Three exams — music, statistics and sociology — of class XI could not be conducted owing to the lockdown. The remaining exams of class XI will not be conducted again. Annual performance reports of the students in these three subjects will be done based on the marks obtained by them in half-yearly examinations.”

Nath said they have taken the promotion decision so that lessons were not hampered and the students can attend the online classes without any further delay.

“The local news channels will be broadcasting classes for the new academic session, which will continue till May 3. Regular classes in schools are likely to start from May 4 if the lockdown is lifted,” he said.

The district education officers and inspectors of schools had been asked to instruct the school principals or headmasters and teachers to upload the results through EmpowerU application by April 25.

On the 22 degree colleges and seven technical institutions in the state, Nath said online classes had already been started using online platforms. “WhatsApp groups have been created, subject and semester-wise. If any student is willing to clear doubts, then they can call the teacher or email them too. Maharaja Bir Bikram (MBB) University has also started online classes. But the department cannot promote all students to the next semester. In this case, higher education officials will take up the matter with the university officials soon,” he said.