Amid a surge in the number of Covid-19 cases in the state, engineering students, who are attending offline classes after a Karnataka government order to the tune, are afraid of contracting the virus.
Despite opposition from various colleges across Bengaluru, the state government, on January 6, revised the January 4 Covid restriction orders to permit engineering colleges in Bengaluru Urban district to hold offline classes.
The revised order, issued by chief secretary P Ravikumar, allowed all institutions and colleges affiliated to the Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), Belagavi, to hold offline classes amid strict adherence to Covid-19 appropriate behaviour.
A student from a private engineering college in Bengaluru said around six of his classmates have tested positive for Covid-19 in the last three days and this has led to a fear in the college. “Offline classes have been made compulsory despite this and there isn’t any option to attend online classes,” the student said.
Many engineering colleges also run hostels for students on their campuses and many inside the hostels have tested positive, leading the institutions to shut down the premises, informed a few students.
Twenty hostel students of JSS Academy of Technical Education (JSSATE) in Bengaluru tested positive Saturday and were quarantined in their hostel block.
Infections at hostels have raised concerns as students are expected to attend offline classes. Anvith Kateel, general secretary of the National Students Union of India, posted a video on Twitter of students being quarantined inside the hall of a hostel and said, “Is this the way to handle students at hostels? Students have tested positive and still the college wants to hide the number of cases. Where are the so-called ministers of the state who want students to suffer by holding offline classes?”
Meanwhile, Kateel said many colleges in the city are hiding the number of positive cases and are running offline classes despite an increase in the number of cases at the colleges.
“After we received information that the students are testing positive and have been quarantined in halls and rooms inside the hostels, I asked them to send videos. I got to know that there are many such cases but the institutions are hiding the figures,” he said.
He added, “Some colleges even sent out circulars to the parents saying no one has tested positive and that the news about their students testing positive is fake. In a circular, the principal of a college claimed the videos doing the rounds on social media are old Covid cases and at present, no student is positive.”
Meanwhile, Karisiddappa, Vice Chancellor of VTU, said the university has asked all colleges to conduct classes in a blended mode since some students have tested positive and there are primary contacts.
“As of now, low attendance is only seen in Bengaluru since the cases in the city are increasing. In the other parts of the state, the cases are low and attendance is good,” he said.
“We will review the attendance from time to time and take a call on the matter,” he said.
He added that the fifth and the seventh semester classes were scheduled to get over by the end of this month, while the first and the third semester students need more time for their portions to be completed.