Delhi government has decided to keep all school education institutions closed for the month of July due to the rising COVID-19 cases in the state. Apart from that, IIT Delhi has decided to switch to online classes for the next semester.

Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia said after a meeting with education department officials that the decision to keep the schools shut has been taken as a safety precaution as the number of cases in the state continues to rise, according to NDTV.

During the meeting, a proposal to cut the school syllabus by 50% was also discussed and a decision on this will be taken soon, Meanwhile, officials agreed that schools should continue to run online activities with the help of the parents, adds the report.

IIT Delhi director V Ramgopal Rao said that the sub-committee has recommended conducting all the classes online and the institute will follow the suggestions provided by the sub-committee.

Hindustan Times said that the sub-committee report said, “Semester 1 (2020-21) classes for all UG [undergraduate] and PG [postgraduate] programs to be conducted in online mode for all courses, with short term and smaller weightage evaluations through viva, online quizzes, take-home exams, online exams, etc.”

The report also said that students will take the classes online from their hostels and no students will be asked to come to the campus. Even in the campus, all relevant safety measures will be taken. All practical component of the classes will be shifted to later part of the academic year, says the report.

Delhi is the second worst affected state in terms of the number of COVID-19 cases. More than 80,000 cases have been detected until Saturday evening with more than 2500 deaths. The national COVID-19 figure crossed the 5 lakh mark on Saturday morning