BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh School of Drama (MPSD) has suspended regular classes of 2020-21batch and compensatory classes of batch 2019-20 after 10 of the 25 students of the new batch of the school test positive for Covid-19 on Monday.
The school’s office has been shut down and all the staff, including the Director Alok Chatterjee, has gone into self-isolation.
The director told Free Press that after three students of the School complained of fever, cough and cold two days back, all the 25 students (of batch 2020-121) were subjected to the Covid test. The tests turned out to be positive for 10 of them. The students have been put in the isolation ward of the J K Hospital, Kolar Road.
Chatterjee said that as a matter of precaution the school has decided to suspend classes of both the batches indefinitely. “No classes will be held till further orders,” he said. The staff has also been asked to go into isolation.
Most of the students who have tested positive are from different places in the state and the country. Posts on social media said that the parents of the students are worried about their safety. There are also rumblings of protest against the School’s decision to start classes amid the pandemic, a social media post claimed.
The new academic session of the School had begun from December 1, making it the first art institution in the country to start regular classes as also the first institution of higher learning in Madhya Pradesh to start holding in-person classes. Every year, the new session begins in July. However, the beginning of the session was delayed by almost five months this year because of the corona pandemic.
