KOLKATA: Many colleges and universities scheduled to resume classes in the offline mode after Christmas break scrambled to inform their students not to come to campus on Monday after the state announced all educational institutes would remain shut due to rising Covid cases.
Sunday’s announcement disappointed both students and teachers. However, most of them said they had been expecting it given how fast the cases were rising.
Jadavpur University, on Sunday, sent out a notice saying some staffers in Aurobindo Bhavan and Central Library had been diagnosed with Covid and hence, these buildings will be closed on Monday for sanitization.
The authorities in colleges and universities had informed students that examinations would be held in the online mode. Many had earlier decided to hold offline examinations, but changed their minds after a rise in cases in the past week. Some residential colleges were scheduled to bring in more batches on campus after Christmas break, but they have now informed students that classes will be online till further instructions.
“We were planning to call in more students for offline classes in the coming weeks, but the plan has now changed as the government has announced educational institutes will be shut due to rising cases of Covid. Even those students who were already coming for offline classes will now only be attending online classes. Examinations for various semesters are already underway in the online mode,” said Father Dominic Savio, principal of St Xavier’s College.
Jadavpur University had summoned students of BSC UG-I and UG-III from January 3 for offline classes. “But all classes will be now held online,” said Snehamanju Basu, registrar.
At Ramakrishna Mission Vidyamandira, too, classes will be held online.
“This is a residential college and we have to be very careful before we call students on campus,” said vice-principal Swami Mahaprajnananda.
Maulana Azad College used WhatsApp groups for online classes to inform students they will be shifting back to the virtual mode from Monday. “We were taking hybrid classes, so the infrastructure for online classes is still in place,” said principal Subhasis Dutta.
All classes will be held in the online mode at Presidency University as well.
Calcutta University had announced that all examinations of the university and its affiliated colleges will be held on digital platforms in the middle of last month.
