The colleges in Maharashtra will not reopen for at least a month, Higher and Technical Education Minister Uday Samant said on Friday. This comes amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the rising threat due the 'highly infectious' Delta Plus variant and the impending third wave of COVID-19,
"Reopening colleges means bringing large groups of students together and if this happens, the third wave is inevitable. If the third wave comes, the students may suffer, their parents and others will also suffer," Samant said. "At present, no provision has been made to reopen colleges for at least a month, he added.
Earlier, Samant had said that the state government has proposed to start the academic year for colleges in Maharashtra from September 15. “Students should not be harmed. Keeping this in mind, the government will soon announce its decision on the commencement of the academic year for colleges from September 15,” he added.
Samant had further said the admission process for non-professional courses will start after Class XII results are declared. He added that there was an option of either conducting CET for admissions to non-technical courses or conducting the admission process based on Class XII marks. "Class XII board examinations have been cancelled. Only after the results are declared will we decide on having CET or not," he added.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra government is actively considering resuming classes at medical colleges with a rider that students, teaching and non-teaching staff should have taken both doses of COVID-19.
‘’We are thinking of taking a decision to allow classes to resume at medical colleges both government and private. However, the only condition is that students, teaching and non teaching staff should have taken two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine,’’ said Dy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.
