Anticipating an increase in attendance in offline classes, many colleges have decided to suspend online classes as they feel lecturers will be unable to handle the workload.
This has created anxiety among students staying in other States, who do not want to travel at this moment. Colleges and universities have their examinations scheduled between August 10 and September 3.
M. Prakash, secretary, Karnataka Private Postgraduate Colleges Association, said online classes will be suspended as they are expecting good attendance for offline classes over the next week.
K.R. Venugopal, Vice-Chancellor of Bangalore University, said the workload on teachers would double if they have to conduct offline and online classes. “We will conduct offline classes this week and later give students a break as they need to prepare for examinations. We will ask lecturers to juggle between online and offline classes this week, and will decide on the way forward for online classes after the examinations end,” he said.
The Higher Education Department had said that colleges should continue online classes along with offline classes. T.M. Manjunath, president, Karnataka Government College Teachers’ Association, said they would be unable to conduct offline classes along with online. “We have considered livestreaming the classes, but many colleges do not have the necessary infrastructure. So, lecturers have to return home to conduct online classes,” he said.
Amaresh Kadagada, State president, Students’ Federation of India, said while many students were ready to attend classes, their parents were not willing to sign consent letters.
