Covid cases have been reported from Jadavpur University, at least three colleges in Kolkata and Salt Lake, and a school off EM Bypass since the resumption of in-person classes last month. Each has responded in a different way.
After a student of grade 12 tested positive last week, the school advised all grade 12 students to monitor their health and get an RT-PCR test done if required.
One south Kolkata college suspended in-person classes in the subject an affected student is pursuing for a fortnight and another for seven days.
The college in Salt Lake suspended in-person classes in a subject for four days and advised students to keep watch on their health.
Jadavpur University suspended its in-person classes for undergraduate second-year students of geology for a week.
Institutions have reacted in their own ways to a Covid report and allegations have been aplenty about overreaction as well as not doing enough.
The absence of a clear advisory on how to deal with the situation has made things worse.
The standard operating procedure (SOP) the education department has shared with the institutions says as soon as a student or an employee tests positive for Covid-19 the person should be isolated.
“Measures like holding no class…. may be enforced, depending upon the severity of the situation,” the SOP says.
A teacher at JU, where the suspended in-person classes resumed on Monday after a week, said: “The SOP, under ‘measures of containment’, does not specify how long in-person classes have to be kept suspended.”
A college teacher said students were coming to class by public transport, where physical distancing norms are hardly followed.
“So it is difficult to prevent infection. It is also not possible to suspend classes indefinitely. Since other students from the same class have not tested positive and the infected student is doing fine in home quarantine, we decided to resume in-person classes,” he said.
An official of the education department said they had left it to the institutional heads “to take measures as they deem fit”.
Public health expert Abhijit Chowdhury said: “Whatever is being done is more a result of our own understanding of how Covid can be managed rather than what science says.”
Asutosh College has kept in-person classes for the third-semester (postgraduate) students of geography suspended for two weeks.
“The infected student is in home isolation. No other student has complained of any symptoms so far. Classes in the other semesters are being held as usual,” said a teacher.
Gokhale Memorial (Girls’) College resumed undergraduate third-semester classes in English last week.
The college in Salt Lake, too, resumed offline classes in zoology, said a department official.
The school off EM Bypass has requested parents to inform the school authorities of any illness/symptoms exhibited by the students or people they are in close contact with.
