Jadavpur University to reopen campus soon, forms panel to draft COVID-19 protocols

The move comes after the West Bengal government announced that it is planning to reopen educational institutes after the Durga Puja vacation later this year.

Jadavpur University has formed a committee to draft COVID-19 safety measures on the campus. The move comes after the West Bengal government announced that it is planning to reopen educational institutes after the Durga Puja vacation later this year, a varsity official said.

A panel comprising representatives of faculties, non-teaching staff and students has been set up to work on the issue and recommend all possible steps to be taken to resume physical classes while adhering to the COVID-19 guidelines when the state government will give its nod to resume on-campus activities, he said. 

“The decision to form a committee was taken at an executive council meeting of the university. We are now discussing the nitty-gritty and will take a call (on reopening)only when the state higher education department will issue necessary instructions. No one knows what will be the COVID situation in October,” the senior varsity official told PTI.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier this month announced that her government was weighing options for reopening schools and colleges on alternate days after the Durga Puja vacation. ”However, nothing has been finalised just yet,” she had told reporters. Educational institutes have been closed in the state since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March last year.

Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association General Secretary Partha Pratim Roy told a media house that a similar committee was formed last year and wondered over the need for constituting another panel. ”A similar exercise was undertaken about a year back but the pandemic situation continued and the government didn’t give its nod to the educational institutions to reopen. ”We will cooperate but forming another panel will not change the ground situation and what the government thinks. What experts will recommend to the state administration is important,” he added.

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