Maha govt allows colleges to resume classes with 50% attendance from Feb 15
Maharashtra govt allows colleges to resume classes with 50% attendance from February 15
The Maharashtra government on Wednesday allowed colleges to resume classes with 50% attendance starting from February 15. Uday Samant, Maharashtra’s higher and technical education minister also announced that the government has decided to relax the 75% compulsory attendance criteria for the current academic year.
The colleges have reopened in Maharashtra after a period of ten months after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic forced colleges and schools to shut down due to nationwide lockdowns.
Samant said that the curb in physical attendance and relaxation in compulsory attendance has been placed due to the ongoing Covid-19 situation in the state. Samant said, "We have decided to restart colleges and universities in the state from February 15. The colleges can conduct physical classes with 50% students in a class."
Earlier in January, vice-chancellors of all public universities in Maharashtra demanded resumption of actual classroom teaching in colleges. The vice-chancellors of the universities had demanded the restarting of normal classes in a meeting with Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari. The virtual meeting was also attended by state higher and technical education secretary Om Prakash Gupta, news agency PTI reported.
Maharashtra governor Koshyari called the Maharashtra government's stand on reopening of colleges 'ironical' and said that if schools can reopen for children studying in classes V-VIII, universities and colleges too should resume classroom teaching.
Maharashtra's state higher and technical education minister has instructed colleges authorities to strictly ensure Covid-19 preventative measures. Maharashtra has vaccinated more than 3 lakh healthcare and frontline workers so far and has more than 42,000 active Covid-19 cases in the state.
(with inputs from Faisal Malik)
