Jadavpur University has asked all heads of the departments and directors of schools “to undertake a stocktaking of the laboratory, equipment and other classroom facilities” so the university is ready to resume on-campus academic activities following permission from the government.
Early this week, the teachers of the university had written to education minister Bratya Basu demanding that the campus be reopened for research scholars and final-year science and engineering students who need laboratory access.
The university has also launched an exercise to take stock of the vaccination status among research scholars and students.
A notice addressed to the departmental heads and others by university’s registrar Snehamanju Basu says: “You are requested to undertake a stocktaking of laboratory, equipment and other classroom facilities so that the university remains prepared to resume academic activities once the government grants the permission.”
In a separate notice, the chief librarian has been asked to initiate the process of issuing and returning of books in the central library as well as in the departmental library.
An official of the university said, since the laboratories and classrooms have remained shut since March 2020 as a precaution against Covid, the stocktaking exercise is a must to find out whether the university is prepared for reopening.
“Some of the equipment might have developed glitches or have started to malfunction as they haven’t been used for the past 18 months. In that case, we have to get the facilities repaired. While we demand campus reopening, at our end there should be optimum preparedness to be able to reopen,” said Parthapratim Roy, the general secretary of the teachers’ association.
The school education department on Thursday told the district magistrates to prepare the “vetted estimates of school infrastructure” before the schools could be reopened after the Puja, subject to prevalence of normalcy.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had said last month that her government was keen to reopen the schools and colleges on alternate days in November, provided the Covid situation remained under control.
On Friday afternoon, JU vice-chancellor Suranjan Das visited the departments in the engineering faculty, laboratories and classrooms in the science and arts faculties along with the registrar Basu, university’s engineers and officials of the estate section as part of the stocktaking exercise.
An official of the university said, ever since the government allowed the reopening of 282 polytechnic colleges and 178 industrial training institutes to enable students to attend practical classes from August 30, the JU students have become more eager about reopening the campuses.
The two polytechnic colleges, Regional Institute of Printing Technology (RIPT) and APC Roy Polytechnic Colleges, adjoin the university’s main campus in Jadavpur.
On Monday, the teachers wrote to Bratya Basu that research laboratories must start functioning as soon as possible as lab-based subjects “cannot be taught online”.
The teachers have sought phased reopening, starting with research scholars, final year BSC-MSC and BTech-MTech students.
“If polytechnic colleges can be opened, then phased reopening is possible in universities also,” said Parthapratim Roy, the general secretary of the teachers’ association.
The university on Friday uploaded on its website a Google form link for research scholars and students in an attempt to prepare the database on the vaccination status.
The link read: “This will be required for the Covid-19 vaccination drive by the government of West Bengal, higher education department; vide communication to Jadavpur University, dated 9th September 2021”.
In the form, the students have to mention the number of doses they have taken and details of registration on CoWIN portal.