COVID-19 impact: Mumbai colleges cancel plan to reopen for physical classes

In the first week of February, state education minister for higher and technical education Uday Samant had announced that colleges can reopen with not more than 50 per cent attendance on campus at any given point of time.

With the rising number of coronavirus cases in Maharashtra, the colleges which had earlier reopened to conduct physical classes are now shifting back to online education. A handful of institutes who had recently started physical practical sessions or scheduled a combination of online and offline preliminary exams for their final-year batches have now called-off all physical sessions and are continuing lectures only online.

Despite no clarity from the state government, some colleges had begun the practical sessions for their final-year students. A college in the suburbs had informed its students to start attending physical classes in batches of not more than 20-25, but with the current COVID-19 situation they have put the idea on hold.

“We had also received consent forms from parents, but the current situation does not permit us to take any chances with the health or safety of our staff and students. For the time being, we are holding back our plans for the physical reopening of colleges and will instead continue online classes itself,” said the principal of the college.

In the first week of February, state education minister for higher and technical education Uday Samant had announced that colleges can reopen with not more than 50 per cent attendance on campus at any given point of time. The University of Mumbai (MU) then issued a circular, asking colleges to approach the local civic authority or the collector’s office before restarting physical classes in a phased manner. The circular also shared the Covid-19 safety guidelines prescribed by the University Grants Commission (UGC) to ensure the safety of staff and students.

On February 12, however, after a meeting between officials from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and MU, the civic officials directed the varsity to postpone the reopening of colleges by a week until February 22. Since then, owing to rising Covid-19 cases in the city and state, the education minister or the local civic authorities have not given any clear directions to colleges or the university about the status of reopening of colleges, forcing more colleges to start preparing for the next exam session only in online mode.

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