Team Herald

PANJIM: As the new academic year for undergraduate students is set to begin from Wednesday, the colleges are expected to resume physical classes for the third-year students at the start, most probably after the Ganesh festival.

The State government on August 16, decided to lift the restrictions imposed on education institutions for conducting classes in physical mode. Accordingly, the colleges were asked to conduct physical classes for the students for the current academic term after assessing the ground realities and the infrastructure availability.

Almost every college is currently in process of forming batches to accommodate all the students in the campus, following standard operating procedure (SOP) like social distancing. The colleges have decided to resume classes in physical mode for third-year students in the first phase.

“Colleges are planning to start physical classes in phase manner, wherein in the first phase only third year students will be called. This might not happen immediate but shortly or most probably after Ganesh festival,” said a professor from Margao College.

Principal of CSE College Cuncolim Dr Sanjay Desai said that they are in process of assessing the infrastructure availability. “Students safety is also our priority and there will be no compromise on that front,” said Desai.

As a mandatory measure, the Directorate of Higher Education (DHE) has asked all the non-vaccinated staff members excluding those who cannot be vaccinated because they were/are COVID positive, to produce the RT-PCR test report every week in a bid to attend the classes.

The government justified its decision to allow physical classes for college students on ground that all are above 18 years and vaccinated, by at least one dose.

The admissions for the first-year degree programme is currently underway, with over 7,500 students getting admitted in the first round of admissions in government and aided colleges.

The academic term for Class I to XII commenced from June 21 in online mode.