Many colleges and universities across Karnataka are gearing up to welcome final year undergraduate and post graduate students from Tuesday. Managements and faculties are supervising COVID-19 precautionary measures to be taken as per University Grant Commission (UGC) and the State Government guidelines.
This includes testing the teaching and non-teaching staff.
K.R. Venugopal, Vice Chancellor, Bangalore University said that they had set up five task forces for smooth functioning of the University. “The task forces include student monitoring, faculty coordination and timely availability of necessary resources, including water,” he said.
He also said he had directed all the 300 affiliated colleges to complete practicals for the final year students as soon as possible.
“A blend of online and offline classes along with homework will be the mantra. With this, we can also reduce the teaching portions which will also reduce the workload of the faculty,” he said.
Prof. Venugopal also said that at the university campus, canteens would be closed and library would only issues books. Students should compulsorily get sanitisers, masks, water bottles and food.
Many colleges have been testing their faculty members as precautionary measures ahead of college reopening on Tuesday.
C.B. Annapurnamma, principal, National College, Basavanagudi, said that they had tested over 70 teaching and non-teaching staff. “Out of them, two have tested positive. We are now sanitising the campus and will reopen from November 18. We are also deliberating on testing the teaching and the non teaching staff often, may be once in 10 to 15 days,” she said.
Ms. Annapurnamma also said that they had scheduled practical classes such that not more than 15 students would be there in a class. “Since only final year students are coming back, maintaining social distancing would not be a problem. Students will be allowed inside the college only if they get a no-objection certificate from parents. We have also instructed students to directly get back home after the college,” she said.
Meanwhile, even Karnataka State Law University (KSLU) is also allowing only the final year students from Tuesday.
P. Ishwara Bhat, Vice Chancellor, KSLU, said that all the 106 law colleges affiliated to KSLU have been directed to follow the guidelines issued by the UGC and the State Government.
“Our campus will reopen for only final year students initially. Exams for terminal semester students will begin from the 23rd of this month,” he said, and added that elaborate precautionary measures were in place to welcome students.
Mr. Bhat also added that depending on the situation, they would allow, after around 10 or 15 days, even intermediate semester students to come to colleges. “According to the Bar Council of India, conducting exams for intermediate semesters is also mandatory. Students have been promoted for the sake of taking admission. Hence, we will have to conduct exams for intermediate semesters also. Keeping in mind the best interest of students, we will take a call on it in the future,” he said.
RT-PCR test
With colleges and student hostels all set to re-open from Tuesday, students, teachers and non-teaching staff have to undergo RT-PCR test for COVID-19. They may attend the college only if the report is negative, said N. Manjunath Prasad, Commissioner, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), who added that the RT-PCR is valid for 72 hours in the absence of any symptoms.
In a communique here on Monday, he said there are around 432 colleges in the city with more than 60,000 students, teachers and non-teaching staff. These educational institutions/colleges will be mapped to one of the nearby 141 Urban Primary Health Centres. The staff and students can go to the nearest UPHC for getting tested anytime between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Apart from the UPHCs, around 450 mobile swab collection teams from each PHC will be deployed near educational institutions/colleges, with additional teams in areas with several educational institutions/colleges, the communique said.
Samples will be sent to laboratories to get reports within 24 hrs. The medical officers will monitor the situation to avoid any delays and send sample collection data daily to cpmobbmp@gmail.com. The laboratories will also upload results to ICMR portal within 24 hours. All test reports can be accessed at https://www.covidwar.karnataka.gov.in/service1. The reports can be downloaded as PDF copy as well.
The communique added that the colleges are expecting around 30% student attendance initially. The BBMP swab collection units would be able to cover these students in a couple of days. When more students are likely to start attending colleges, teams will deployed near the institutions on subsequent days.
