On 28 December, Union Minister of Education Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank will address two NITs-NIT-Goa and VNIT-Nagpur convocation ceremonies. In two separate tweets, the minister told the two institutions that he would deliver virtual addresses. At 11 am, he will send an address to Nagpur students and virtually join Goa students at 3 pm on the same day.
For school-going students, the education minister has also announced to hold a live interaction on December 31 wherein he said he will announce the dates of the upcoming board exams. This too was announced through his Twitter handle. The minister has been making some major announcements through tweets and social media-based live interactions since the pandemic has hit India.
In the last live, Pokhriyal had announced that no exams will be held till February 2021 and alternatives to practical exams will be devised if schools do not reopen. He had in another live interaction announced that the number of attempts given in the engineering entrance exam will be doubled to four in a year.
Not just the education minister but the Prime Minister Narendra Modi too has been delivering speeches on convocations. At the IIT-Delhi convocation held earlier this year, Modi had told college students, “Country will give you the ease of doing business, you bring ease of living for poor”. At centenary celebrations of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) Modi lauded the “bridge courses” run for school drop-out students by AMU. He further said the government is very focused on the education of Muslim daughters and their empowerment.
Most recently, at Visva-Bharati University PM Modi asked students to come to the aid of local artists who every year set up stalls in the Poush Mela (winter fair) to sell their products, “This year the Poush Mela could not be held due to Covid 19 pandemic. This is the third time in its history that Poush Mela could not be held. As the nation is giving importance to the use of local products, I would urge university officials and its students to come to the aid of local artists in the promotion of their handicrafts,” he said.