BENGALURU: Most college campuses in Bengaluru saw only a handful of students on Tuesday when they were finally open to final-year students for regular classes after an eight-month break owing to Covid-19 outbreak.
Many colleges saw around 10% of attendance; some did not have even one student. Colleges said many students are yet to get the mandatory Covid negative certificate as they are either hesitant to get tested or results are yet to come.
Some stuck to online mode, others streamed offline classes
Some colleges did not open and continued with online classes. Others managed to stream their offline classes through mobiles for students who did not come to campus. Colleges said students are either scared of going for tests or are yet to get the results.
Professional colleges, too, did not see a major turnout. “Some 65% students had given
consent to come. But colleges saw only 20-35% students. Many are hesitant to give the Covid test. Since colleges reopened on Tuesday, many did not turn up,” said VTU VC Karisidappa.
University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering had zero students. “Because of the festival season and the holidays, students could not get Covid certificates. Every change will face resistance initially, but we expect students to start coming. Our online classes are going on well and practical classes will be held when they return to the campus,” principal HN Ramesh said.
Government-run RC College of Commerce and Management had six of its 800 students turning up on campus. At least 20 had to return since they were waiting for Covid test result.
“We had all arrangements in place. But the number of students who turned up did not meet our expectations — only six of 960 undergraduate final-year students came. Two PG students also turned up. We’re hoping the numbers will go up in the coming weeks,” said Meera HN, principal, Seshadripuram College.
Nanda N, principal, BMS College for Women, echoed the sentiment: “We had three of our 700 students on the campus on Tuesday. Many of them have adopted the wait-and-watch policy. However, another 100 students came for testing.”
“Wehad10studentsof thetotal 120 walking in, but with no Covid certificate. We were helpless and had to send them back. Thus, we did not have any student on day one,” said BG Satyaprasad of GT Institute of Management Studies and Research.
Some other colleges like Maharani University Cluster’s arts and commerce college had better attendance. However, the science section did not have a good turnout. Higher education minister CN Ashwath Narayan visited the arts and commerce sections and interacted with students. “Students were not satisfied with online sessions; hence, we began classes. There’s free Covid test for all. No student will be forced to come. But if they do, they have to bring the Covid-negative certificate,” he said.
Bengaluru North University VC TD Kemparaju said attendance was affected by the unavailability of KSRTC buses in rural areas. Attendance in BNU colleges varied between 15% and 18% and touched 20% in very few colleges.
Dy CM: Decision on schools later
Deputy CM CN Ashwath Narayan said reopening of schools and PU colleges will be decided based on the experience of opening of higher education classes. The school education minister will share information on this, he said.