A ray of hope beamed through the lives of Delhi University students when the Delhi government announced the reopening of the schools and colleges. In a tweet, the deputy of CM of Delhi appreciated the health care system and the declining COVID-19 cases after the second wave.
However, the most trending question among the students is – Is Delhi University reopening?
Life at the University of Delhi came at a standstill when the first nationwide lockdown was announced in March 2020. Be it OBE, online classes, students paying fees for on-ground activities, and professors not receiving their salaries; the university still didn’t acknowledge a lot.
Earlier this month, the varsity circulated an official notice announcing that it would hold offline classes for science stream students. Nevertheless, the reopening was deferred within 24 hours of the announcement. The reason behind the postponement has stated the displeasure of the teaching staff and no green signal from the Delhi Disaster Management Authority.
Similarly, last to last year, the University of Delhi speculated on the conduction of physical final year exams. However, even if DU pretended to be prepared for offline exams for the class of 2019, it eventually settled the matters with Open Book Examinations (OBE).
When the registrar of DU was questioned about the same Vikas Gupta replied, “A final decision will be taken in an executive meeting.” However, Gupta cleared the haze by stating that DU won’t be able to resume from September 1.
Today, after attending the executive meeting, “I welcome the DDMA advisory, it has helped us in re-opening the University in a phased manner,” DU’s vice-chancellor PC Joshi told ANI. Further, Joshi said the varsity, which has students from across the country and even outside India, is looking into various options. “We’ll have to contemplate on how they will be included. All those things have to be considered,” the VC said.
“We want to reopen soon, but we don’t want to take a decision in haste. That might adversely affect students. I think we’ll first allow third-year students and then further extend it when it works out well,” Joshi said.
The VC also informed that the final decision on phased the reopening would be taken in the next five to six days as the university has to plan on how to accommodate students from different states in the hostels. ‘Everything needs to be considered,’ he said.
Further, he said that the university would ensure that the students who plan to attend the offline mode of classes are vaccinated, and also informed that the vaccination of the DU teachers is almost complete.
