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Mumbai colleges forced to go back to online mode as Covid-19 cases surge
Despite no clear directions from the government, some colleges had chosen to restart practical sessions for their final-year students
Weeks after colleges began taking small steps towards the gradual reopening of their campuses, the rising Covid-19 cases in Mumbai has again postponed their plans of physical classes.
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 clear directions from the government, some colleges had chosen to restart practical sessions for their final-year students.
“Our students were worried about not understanding important practical concepts online. So with the consent of their parents, we had started allowing 15-20 students to our laboratories each day for practical sessions,” said Hemlata Bagla, principal KC College, Churchgate.
She said that the college for now has planned practical classes in a way that students have to sit through four-five back-to-back lectures so they do not need to come back to the campus for a physical class anytime soon. However, the originally scheduled preliminary exams for their final-year students, starting on Wednesday, will now only be held in the online mode, added Bagla.
A college in the suburbs had informed its students to start attending physical classes in batches of not more than 20-25, but the move has now been put on hold.
“We had also received consent forms of 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 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% 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.
“Last time [winter 2020 exam session], we had very little time to prepare, and colleges were asked to put together question papers in multiple choice questions (MCQs) format. But this time, we will try to incorporate more descriptive type questions along with MCQs in the papers. Whatever the decision of the university or the state education department, colleges are preparing for exams already,” said Marie Fernandes, principal of St Andrew’s College, Bandra.
