On Monday, a group of Jadavpur University instructors wrote to West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu, requesting him to take immediate action to vaccinate students and researchers against COVID in order to reopen the university.
KOLKATA: On Monday, a group of Jadavpur University instructors wrote to West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu, requesting him to take immediate action to vaccinate students and researchers against COVID in order to reopen the university. In the first phase, final-year students might be permitted to attend physical lessons in separate batches after receiving vaccines, according to a letter to Basu from the Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association. It also asked him to enable the university’s research operations to resume.
“As a first move toward reopening the campus, we demand urgent COVID-19 Vaccination for research researchers and students,” JUTA general secretary Partha Pratim Roy stated. The teachers’ union also requested the government to authorise on-campus Vaccination camps for students who have not got their vaccinations, claiming that their studies have been disrupted for nearly 18 months.
Online instruction, according to Roy, cannot be used as a substitute for in-person instruction, and laboratory-based topics cannot be taught in this manner. “You may be aware that instruments in our university’s laboratories have been sitting dormant for some time. Many of these are no longer functional. If these high-value instruments are not used, millions of rupees are lost, which is a complete waste of public funds “In a letter to Basu, the teachers’ union stated.
Meanwhile, a group of JU students affiliated with SFI and other unions staged a protest in front of the varsity’s administration building on Monday, demanding the reopening of the campus and shouting anti-government chants.
The Presidency University Students’ Union also wrote to the authorities, requesting free Vaccination on campus.
“It has been 539 days since our university was closed down because to the COVID-19 epidemic,” the SFI-controlled students’ organisation said, noting that vaccination of students will allow the resumption of activities on campus.
Despite the fact that the second wave of COVID-19 has passed, the university administration “has not made attempts to reopen the institute,” the union’s president Mimosa Ghorai said the administration should create a committee to debate and make decisions on resuming on-campus activities.
The union requested the government to ensure that students have access to library services, as they are experiencing difficulties without them. SFI also staged a protest in front of Presidency University’s main entrance to advocate for its objectives.