Chandigarh, July 12, 2020 :
Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has tasked the Education Department to work out ways to ensure seamless delivery of education to students with no or inadequate online access.
Given the Covid situation, which was preventing regular offline classes to be held, it was imperative to ensure equal educational opportunity and access for all students, including the poor and rural students, the Chief Minister said in response to a question during #AskCaptain on Sunday.
The Education Department was exploring ways and means to deal with the challenge of imparting education to those who do not have access to online systems, he said, adding that the new processes would be put in place very soon to ensure that students do not suffer due to the prolonged suspension of physical classes.
In response to a question, Captain Amarinder said his government had already filed a Letters Patent Appeal (LPA) challenging the High Court decision allowing private schools to charge fee even where no online classes were held during the lockdown period.
On the issue of university and college exams for the final term students, the Chief Minister made it clear that he does not agree with the latest UGC guidelines making it mandatory for exams to be held by September. The UGC should leave it to states to decide, given their ground realities, he said, adding that he hoped the Prime Minister, to whom he had written a letter yesterday in this regard, would understand the state’s concern and intervene in the interest of the safety of the students.