Teaching & non-teaching staff of educational institutions to work from home till 31 March: MHRD

March 21: In order to ensure the safety of the faculty members/ teachers/ researchers/ non-teaching staff of educational institutions should be permitted and advised to work from home till 31 March, 2020. Further, the faculty members/ teachers/ researchers were asked to utilise this period for various academic activities, such as, development of online content, online teaching, preparing lesson plans, write articles, carry on research, preparation of question bank, innovative projects etc.

This was stated in a letter No.Secy(HE)/ MHRD/2020 issued by Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD) on 21 March, 2020. The letter written by Amit Khare, Secretary, MHRD was addressed to Chairpersons of UGC, AICTE, NCTE, CBSE, NIOS, NTA and all Autonomous organisations under MHRD. A copy of the same letter was also marked to the Chief Secretary of all States and Union Territories with a request to consider similar guidelines for the educational institutions under their control.

The letter from MHRD also stated that the period till 31 March shall be counted as being on duty for all faculty members/ teachers/ researchers/ non-teaching staff including ad-hoc and contractual teachers whose contracts are valid at least upto 31 March, 2020.

Students who are still in the hostels, particularly foreign students should be allowed to continue in their hostels and advised to take all necessary safety precaution, stated the letter. It was also mentioned that the MHRD letter issued on 18 March, 2020 has already directed to postpone all ongoing examinations and evaluation work till 31 March, 2020.

Further, all faculty members/ teachers/ researchers/ non-teaching staff were also asked to provide their contact details, like, mobile number, e-mail id etc to their institutions so that they may be contacted in case of emergency.