Telangana: Colleges not Covid-ready to conduct exams

Hyderabad:A directive from the higher education regulators - University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) - asking all the universities and colleges to gear up for conducting final year undergraduate and postgraduate examinations has sent teaching and non-teaching staff into jitters.

Though the state government and the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad (JNTU-H) are waiting for directions of the AICTE which would be announced only after the pending cases in the court get cleared, it seems that the colleges affiliated to the JNTU-H were asking the teaching and non-teaching staff to attend the colleges. They allege that the college managements were not following the health protocols and this would put their lives under risk.

Speaking to The Hans India, a faculty member of an autonomous college located in Dhulapally said, "The college has not taken any steps even to sanitise the campus and was insisting that the staff attend the college as they have to complete the formalities for renewing NBA and NAAC accreditation.

He further said when some of them followed the instructions, one of the faculty members got contracted with COVID-19 and later his family members also tested positive. Instead of taking preventive measures as recommended by the state government, UGC and AICTE, the college fired the faculty member who tested positive and asked others to continue to attend the institution. Another college faculty member pointed out that when a case of COVID was reported, "All that the college had done was to close the room used by the faculty member reported COVID positive and the washroom he had used. They did not sanitise the building where he has been moving all around for several days.

When contacted, JNTU-H Registrar Dr M Manzoor Hussain said, "We have received complaints from the teaching staff of two private engineering colleges about the institutions not following the sanitization process prescribed by the COVID regulations. He said the college managements have been asked to take steps and comply with the COVID norms. Telangana Technical Institutions Employees Association (TTIEA) president Balakrishna Reddy, expressing concern over such a situation, wondered what would happen if undergraduate and postgraduate examinations were conducted under such circumstances. He demanded that the government should first inspect and ensure that the premises where the examinations would be held were thoroughly sanitised. He said, they had already sent a representation to the State Universities Chancellor and Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan seeking her intervention to protect the safety and well-being of the staff working in the engineering colleges.