Colleges reopen today for final-year students

NEW DELHI: Delhi University (DU) colleges across the city will reopen partially for final-year students from Monday, over 10 months after educational institutes were shut with the enforcement of the lockdown triggered by the coronavirus disease outbreak.

The decision to allow students only for “practicals, skill, library and related activities” – announced on Saturday – also mandates the attendance of all staff members of the colleges.

In line with the guidelines, several colleges have said they will only conduct practical classes in small batches of students initially.

At Ramjas College in North Campus, departmental task forces have been constituted to facilitate the return of students.students are advised to contact their respective teachers in charge/concerned teachers before coming to the college. A list of Covid-19 Task Groups along with contact numbers department wise is attached,” the notice read.

Bijayalaxmi Nanda, principal of Miranda House college in North Campus, said that all the Sops will be followed and only students of Science courses and those in Geography (Hons) will be coming for laboratory work. “Only 12 third-year students, having practical components in their courses, requested to come back to the hostel. They are expected to come later this week. Only one person will be allowed to stay in one room,” she said.

In November, the varsity had allowed postgraduate students of Science courses and Mphil and PHD scholars to return to the colleges for practical work. For graduate students, the university had been shut since March last year in view of the pandemic.

DU’S official spokesperson Balaram Pani, who is also the principal of Bhaskaracharya College of Applied Sciences, said the college has sanitised all classrooms and laboratories. “We will follow all Sops... and allow 10 students in a laboratory at a time,” he said.

However, some teachers raised concern over the decision to make it compulsory for the staff to attend physical classes.

Abha Dev Habib, member of DU Teachers’ Association (DUTA), said: “There is no point calling all teachers to college. Many of the colleges don’t have a proper internet connection. How will teachers manage to take classes in such a situation?” In its order, the university had said colleges can schedule the timings of the staff members in a staggered manner.