Ratna Chotrani
Hyderabad: Telangana governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan today called upon vice-chancellors and the registrars of universities in the state to follow the standard operating procedures (SOP) to ensure the safety of the students while reopening of the campuses from February 1.
She emphasized on taking care of students’ health, safety, psychological, and nutritional aspects during the resumption of physical classes.
The governor held a virtual review meeting with vice-chancellors and registrars on the preparedness of the universities in reopening the colleges with all the safety norms amid the prevailing pandemic conditions. She said that owing to the effective containment of the pandemic by the Central and state governments and the roll out of the vaccine, the colleges are being reopened.
The governor appreciated the vice-chancellors for conducting the online classes, examinations and declaring the results thus helping the students to continue their education despite the pandemic.
She said that Telangana was one of the first states to launch online classes. Telangana should be role model state in establishing the safe campuses and in imparting the quality education, she added.
The governor also advised the universities to go for the health profiling of all the students to offer them the best services in case of any exposure to the Covid-19.
Special chief secretary Chitra Ramachandran informed that physical attendance was not mandatory to allow the students for examinations at the school level. Alternative arrangements are in place to offer online classes for those who are not willing to attend physical classes.
She added that the state government is fully prepared to ensure the safety of the students in the educational institutions and has prepared exhaustive plans on sanitation, teaching, medical, physical distancing, and contingency plan for the safe reopening and resuming of classwork.
K Arvind Kumar, Senior IAS officer who is also the in-charge vice-chancellor of Osmania University, Hyderabad, requested for the statewide policy on the reopening of hostels instead of leaving it to the discretion of the universities. He also pointed out for clarity on the hostels reopening for research scholars.
Jayesh Ranjan, JNTU in-charge Vice-Chancellor, said that they have already started coordinating with all the 261 affiliated colleges for the implementation of Covid-19 prevention safety norms and all the constituent colleges are ready for opening on February 1.
Collegiate Education commissioner Navin Mittal, TSCHE chairman Prof. Papi Reddy, and other vice-chancellors and registrars of all the universities were among those who interacted with the governor during the video conference.