Despite remaining largely unaffected from the initial coronavirus outbreak, India now has 74 infected cases at the time of writing this piece. There have been fortunately no deaths. The federal government has announced a string of strict measures, including a blanket ban on all foreign visas except for a few reserved categories.
State governments too, are taking their own measures. Among them is a closure of educational institutes across some of the most populous state to prevent spread of COVID-19 by communication. Things have become worse, since it is currently an intense exam cycle in India, and school students are particularly facing a hard time after shutting down of the institutions. Keeping that in mind, Indian edutech startup BYJUS has announced free services on its app for students till April 2020.
Students in classes 1-3 can access Maths and English lessons and students in classes 4-12 can learn Maths and Science concepts on the app. The students will also be able to access the entire library of BYJU’S educational content, the company said in a statement.
Students with the pre-installed app (free version) will need to update it in order to access the complete content for free. Citing a UNESCO report, BYJU’S said education of over 290 million students across 13 countries will be interrupted because of the COVID-19 crisis.
“With 250 million school-going students in India, it is of paramount importance that their health is protected while also ensuring that their learning does not get interrupted,” says the company.
The heartening move comes amid a relentless series of ominous events as life across the world has been thrown into jeopardy in the aftermath of the outbreak. Several companies have asked their employees to work from home, the stock markets have tumbled, major world economies continue to suffer, with no light visible at the end of the tunnel.
Updated with company statements and additional details.
