Over 40 per cent students of NIT Durgapur have informed the authorities in a recent survey that they do not want to come to campus because of the pandemic, said an official of the institute.
In the survey, the NIT authorities had asked whether the students want to return to the campus for resumption of academic activities that includes visiting the labs and in-person classes.
Out of 2,263 students, 41.5 per cent who responded to the survey stated their reluctance about returning to the campus.
The institute has started the process of collating the survey data to decide whether they have to conduct hybrid classes in case some students want to stay at home, said an official.
The institute simultaneously carried out a survey about the vaccination status of students to consider a phased return to campus.
“It has emerged in the survey that a section of the students don’t want to come,” said NIT Durgapur director Anupam Basu.
An official of the institute said they did not want students to explain their disinterest about returning to the campus but the fear of Covid was one of the reasons.
Dean of student affairs Rajat Mahapatra said of the 2,263 students, undergraduate and postgraduate students put together, 1,325 (58.5%) were willing to come back. “938 (41.5 per cent) are not willing to come back, 968 (42.7 per cent) have received one vaccine dose and 1,143 (50.51 per cent) are fully vaccinated. Based on this, we have to strategise the resumption of academic activities,” he told Metro.
An NIT official said if a section of students do not want to come after the institute resumes in-person classes following permission from the Union education ministry, then they have to exercise options like hybrid classes so those at home are not deprived.
Hybrid class is a mechanism that allows some students to attend lectures in-person, while the others have the sessions live-streamed to them.
“We cannot force students to come to the campus amid the pandemic,” he said.
The Telegraph reported on Wednesday that multiple private schools in Kolkata have decided to watch the situation before calling students back to campus, in deference to the Bengal government’s decision to reopen schools from November 16, because of the rising Covid cases.
The medical unit of NIT Durgapur on Thursday issued a notice to the campus residents that said: “The COVID-19 scenario after Puja has changed now….At present we have one COVID-19 positive case inside our campus. The number of ILI (Influenza-like illness)/ fever cases are also increasing, which may or may not be COVID-19. But this creates a sense of fear and anxiety among residents”.
Dean of academic affairs, NIT Durgapur, Nirmal Baran Hui, said mostly students from underprivileged backgrounds want to return to campus because of the digital divide.
“The digital divide could be a reason. The willing students at the masters’ level will come from November 4,” he said.
The institute last week received a notice from the education ministry, seeking feedback about the present status of opening up of the campus in physical mode and the plan of the institute to start physical classes along with status of vaccination among students.
The notice was sent to all IITs and NITs.