The Central government has permitted Central and State government training institutes to function from July 15 to set Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) after a long lay off due to coronavirus but most of them are not keen to grab the opportunity right away.
Take for instance, Marri Channa Reddy Human Resource Development Institute, the largest among the twenty odd State government institutes, has expressed that it was happy to continue its ongoing online classes not wanting to risk the presence of trainees on its campus.
Director General of the institute B.P. Acharya said they have no plan to start the courses physically “unless necessary” because the order of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions was clear “as far as possible training programmes should be conducted in digital/online/virtual mode”.
Mr. Acharya also said the institute had successfully conducted the foundation course for 175 trainee civil servants and recruits of Military Engineering Service (MES) online recently without hitch. Over 1,000 functionaries of Tribal Welfare Department of the State were also trained in virtual mode in seven batches.
He added that the institute was rated as the best national training institute for online training due to first mover advantage and many are seeking its advice on how to proceed, the latest one being National Institute of Disaster Management.
Among the training institutes in the State which were necessarily to reopen functioning duly following SOPs of the Centres were police training academies since their training programmes had physical component which could not be dispensed. The National Police Academy, the National Industrial Security Academy which trained personnel for Central Industrial Security Force, the State Police Academy and the police training centres at Amberpet here and districts were among them.
The SOPs issued by Centre for reopening the institutes have virtually left nothing at risk for trainees as they had come with too many conditions. One of them said where it was necessary to conduct training in physical mode, the duration of the training programme should be reviewed carefully to make it more compact by separating the training curriculum into digital and physical mode.
Separate hostel rooms should be allotted to each trainee to extent possible. Meal timings may be staggered with adequate intervals. Movement of trainees within the campus must be restricted. They should stay in their allotted rooms and avoid common areas as lounges. There should be sufficient time gaps between consecutive sessions. Lengthy classroom sessions should be avoided.
