Students are carrying masks but not wearing them properly and colleges are conducting classes in disregard of physical distancing norms.
Many complaints have emerged about how the guard has been lowered on campuses affiliated to the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology (MAKAUT) since the resumption of in-person classes.
Students are allegedly putting the masks in their pockets or bags after wearing them for some time.
Then there are standard excuses like “No one is able to hear what I am saying” or “We have taken both doses, nothing can happen to us”, said an official of a college.
The state higher education department, while allowing resumption of physical classes from November 16, mandated that institutions have to create multiple facilities to dispense sanitiser and liquid soap.
An official of MAKAUT, to which around 200 colleges offering BTech and other professional courses are affiliated, said they have received many complaints that institutions had not made adequate arrangements for creating these facilities.
The university has asked colleges to follow the Covid-19 protocol in “letter and spirit”.
“All colleges affiliated under MAKAUT, are hereby requested to follow COVID19 protocol in letter and spirit. The college authorities are to ensure 100% vaccination of the students and employees visiting the campus,” says a notice issued on December 11 by registrar Partha Pratim Lahiri.
An official of the university said they sent to the colleges the standard operating procedure (SOP) prepared by the higher education department while allowing resumption of in-person classes for the second and third-year students at the undergraduate level and first and second-year students at the postgraduate level.
First-year undergraduate students are attending classes on digital platforms.
The SOP has among other things called for making adequate arrangements for thermal scanners and sanitisers. Face masks should be made available and staggered timings introduced for entry and exit.
“But many colleges are not following the SOP. They have been asked to follow the guidelines in letter and spirit,” said an official.
Vice-chancellor Saikat Maitra said students and teachers must remember that Covid is far from over.
“A new variant has surfaced. The colleges cannot afford to lower their guard. We want physical classes to go on but with strict adherence to the norms that have been laid out,” he said.