Colleges, universities reluctant to reopen for undergraduates
Deepkamal Kaur
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, November 9
Though the state government had given its nod on November 5 to reopen colleges and universities outside the containment zones from November 16, the authorities concerned were reluctant to take a call in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
While some universities had allowed post-graduate and PhD scholars to attend institutes, college managements were not keen on calling undergraduates.
Dr BR Ambedkar National Institute of Technology (NIT) had reopened for MTech and research scholar, but has yet not taken any decision on holding regular classes for BTech students. Students returning to the campus were being screened for the Covid-19.
Dr LK Awasthi, Director, NIT, said, “We have already conducted 700 tests of students. We have also opened our hostels for students and are following all precautions.”
Lovely Professional University, which has over 25,000 students enrolled, has yet not taken a call. “We do not want to reopen the campus in haste. The biggest challenge before us is whether students are ready to rejoin and are their parents willing to send them. Once students rejoin, we also have to open hostels, which itself will be a challenge. We need at least a week’s time to review the situation. Whenever we reopen the campus, we will follow all the protocols,” said Aman Mittal, Additional Director, Public Relations (LPU).
Managements of private colleges also shared the similar concern. Dr Atima Sharma Dwivedi, Principal, Kanya Maha Vidyalaya, said, “After the government allowed research scholars and post-graduate students to visit laboratories in mid-October, some of our students started coming. However, we are not prepared to call undergraduate students. Once we call students, we will have to open hostels where they will be using common facilities, including washrooms and mess.”
“Day scholars will use public transport and may become Covid-19 carriers. Holding online and offline classes will be doubly taxing on teachers, which we cannot afford. As of now, we are not reopening our campuses for BTech students,” said Dr Dwivedi.
The college principals said they were also wary of the fact that second wave of the Covid-19 was expected around November end. They said they do not want such a situation wherein colleges had to be shut again.
They added that as regular Classes for IX to XII in schools were not getting good response, they were not sure if a similar experiment could work for college students.
