IITs request government for priority vaccine to students for early return to campus

The IITs have urged the government to step in and help vaccinate their students on priority, as state governments have been unable to procure enough vaccines for those in the 18-44 age group.

The IITs have urged the government to expedite the vaccination of their students to facilitate their return to the campus.  As per the sources, during a meeting with Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, the Indian Institute of Technology's (IITs) have urged the government to step in and help vaccinate their students on priority, as state governments have been unable to procure enough vaccines for those in the 18-44 age group. Many IITs still have students living on campus.

In April, an IIT Delhi internal survey of 3,910 students found that 22 percent had tested positive for Covid-19 between March and April, and 61 percent said at least one family member had tested positive. IIT Delhi authorities had relaxed norms, including that of attendance and deadlines, after the findings of the survey.

At IIT Roorkee also, after 60 students had tested positive in April, the institute had also sealed five of their hostels. In March, 65 IIT-Jodhpur students had tested positive, prompting the authorities to declare its G 3 block a containment zone. Ten cases were reported from IIT-Bhubaneswar in the same month.

In December last year, a major outbreak at IIT-Madras saw 71 cases, of whom 66 were students.

The cases being reported were discussed at a meeting of IITs, NITs, IISc and IISERs called by the Education Ministry on Thursday to discuss online classes and implementation of the new National Education Policy.

The IITs are learned to have asked the government for a year’s extension for scholarships for PhD students, as they have lost time due to the lockdown. Besides IITs, directors of IISc, IIITs, IISERs and NITs took part in the meeting through video-conferencing.

The status of online classes and virtual laboratory courses was also reviewed by the minister.

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