NEW DELHI — India’s leading university, the Jawaharlal Nehru University, reopened on Sept. 6 for Ph.D. research scholars, Ph.D. (PWD), and 9B students as part of the phased opening of the varsity, which said that other students will, however, have to wait longer to attend physical classes, in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We need to have a uniform protocol for all. Online mode will continue as the university will not be taking any risk with respect to the student’s health,” said Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar, Jawaharlal Nehru University vice-chancellor.
More than 60 percent of the University students are research scholars, and the remaining are in masters and other undergraduate programs.
“For students, all the lectures are held on online mode. This will continue until govt permits the students to come to the campus physically,” said Kumar.
“In the case of University, there are students from across the country, and some may be living in the regions where Covid-19 is still prevalent for which offline classes are not advisable as of now.”
When the government allows offline classes for all other programs, we will also begin, the administration said.
“Covid-19 monitoring committee has already recommended that Dr. B.R. Ambedkar library can be opened with certain protocols with 50 percent capacity,” said the Vice-Chancellor.
“The administration is working on the sanitization part. The central library will be accessible to the students, but the only request to the students is to follow the Covid-19 guidelines very strictly. The central library will be accessible to the students.”
On students’ queries regarding waving off hostel fees for students who could not use the facilities, the administration, after a meeting, decided to leave.
An interactive session was arranged through social media (Facebook Live) between the university administration, students, and others.
Queries of students related to hostel allotment, admissions, Covid-19 situation, physical classes, reopening of the university were discussed.
In the first phase, Jawaharlal Nehru University reopened for the Ph.D., Ph.D. (PWD), and 9B students who are to submit their papers by Dec. 31 this year.
Students were only allowed inside the campus by producing negative RT-PCR reports done within 72 hours.
For the rest, the online classes continue like earlier during the pandemic period.
The Delhi government had recently announced that schools for classes 9 to 12, colleges, and coaching would reopen from Sept. 1.
The final year students will also return to colleges for accessing labs and undertake practical classes.
The government has plans to open in February this year; however, the classes were suspended again in April due to the second Covid-19 wave.
(With inputs from ANI)
Edited by Saptak Datta and Praveen Pramod Tewari
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