Bengaluru: COVID-19 test has been made mandatory for students who wish to attend degree, engineering and diploma colleges which are all set to re-open from Nov. 17.

Disclosing this at a news conference here on Monday, Deputy Chief Minister and Higher Education Minister Dr. C.N. Ashwathnarayan said students wishing to attend classes offline must undergo RT-PCR  test three days before the beginning of the College and show ‘negative’ report to College authorities on the day of re-opening. Students who tested ‘positive’ are strictly not allowed to attend classes. Teachers must wear face mask and shield compulsorily while taking classes, he said.

The Minister said the Department of Higher Education has formulated SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) as per University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines, as all degree, engineering, and diploma Colleges in the State will re-open from Nov. 17. Preparation was underway to enable the start of the off-line classes. 

The SOP has separate set of advisories for students of final year and the classes will be conducted accordingly. Likewise, there are separate advisories set for the students of first and second year students, he added.

SOP for PG and final year students attending classes physically

• Students who wish to attend classes physically should bring consent letter of their parents in the prescribed format duly signed by them.

• While conducting physical classes social distance needs to be maintained by taking into account the total number of students and the available total number of classrooms as per the guidelines of Health Department and the present advisories.

• Teaching, practical and  project classes be conducted on shift system if necessary.

For those attending classes online

• Online classes should be conducted for those who do not wish to attend physically. Contact classes should be conducted every day to facilitate students to clarify any doubts and resolve issues of such students with regard to topics.

• The time-table should be prepared at the College-level itself so as to enable to maintain the social distance as per the guidelines of the Health Department and the present advisories based on the total number of students and the available number of classrooms while conducting the contact classes.

• Teaching faculty should prepare the study materials required for the duration of one month based on each period/session and compulsorily send it to concerned students via  WhatsApp or e-mail. These study materials should be in the form of video lectures, power-point presentations, e-notes, e-books, audio books, practice questions, etc. It is also mandatory to upload the same study materials to the website of  the College.

• All those students (exclusive of Post-Graduation and final year)  who attend online/ contact classes can stay in hostels located on-campus or off-campus.

• Apart from these the SOPs also have many general guidelines which include cleansing of buildings, entrance, furniture, teaching materials with sanitisers; COVID-19 test of teaching faculty, students, and non-teaching staff and others.