State yet to take decision on resumption of offline lectures in MU degree colleges

MUMBAI: Degree colleges affiliated to the University of Mumbai (MU) are irked, as the state Higher and Technical Education Ministry has not taken a decision regarding the resumption of offline lectures. On January 9, 2021, Uday Samant, state higher and technical education minister, had said that the Maharashtra government will take a decision regarding the reopening of colleges on January 20. However, no final call was taken on Wednesday. Students, teaching and non-teaching staff of degree colleges and universities have been left confused. Jigar Shah, a third year architecture student said, "We do not know if our practical lectures will resume offline by January-end because the state higher education department has not provided any clarity. How long should we wait for a decision?" Degree colleges said they had completed certain preparations and initiated safety measures hoping to reopen offline lectures from January 25. Maheshwari Natarajan, a Sociology professor said, "We were prepared to reopen practical, laboratory and field work lectures offline in a phased manner. We had planned to call students in batches while maintaining COVID-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs)." MU had requested the state to provide clarity on specific guidelines in terms of resuming lectures offline along with RT-PCR tests or COVID-19 vaccination of all staff. -