IIT Kharagpur has announced an interim semester break for the first-year students because of the increasing severity of the pandemic.
As Covid-19 cases continued to surge, a section of students is “stressed” and not being able to “concentrate on online lectures, tests and assignments”.

A Facebook post by the institute’s director V. K. Tewari on Saturday says: “A semester break for first-year undergraduate students will be given from 1st May to 16th May. No classes and tests will be held for first-year students during this period”.

The spring semester started from March 30.

First-year spring semester will end in the first week of July, instead of the last week of June following the introduction of the interim break.
According to an official of the institute, family members of many first-year students got affected following the fresh wave of Covid and this posed challenges to the students in coping up with their academics.

“They have said in their appeals to the authorities that their learning abilities are getting severely impacted due to the current scenario,” said the official.

The students, he said, felt that an interim break in the semester might give some relief and provide them time to consolidate things until the medical situation was stable.

Some of the teachers have also tested positive.

At IIT, the stay on the recall of the research scholars has been extended for another fortnight.

In mid April, the recall was stayed till early May because of the pandemic situation on the campus and across the country.

Repeated calls to director Tewari went unanswered.

St Xavier’s College had earlier this week deferred all online semester exams “given the increasing gravity of the pandemic situation” that has led to a scenario where students are struggling “to concentrate on classes and prepare for examinations”.