Dakshina Kannada frames strict guidelines as on-campus II PU classes set to begin from Sept 1

Mangaluru, Aug 29: The Dakshina Kannada district administration, which has permitted educational institutions to start on-campus classes for II PU students from Sept 1, has taken necessary steps to prevent the spread of covid from neighbouring state.

Deputy commissioner K V Rajendra said that detailed guidelines have been framed to help in the safe commencement of classes.

“The current II PU students had little access to on-campus learning in the first year. Therefore, it has been decided to reopen classes to help students academically, despite the district’s positivity rate being more than 2%,” he said.

According to the circular, it is the responsibility of the college principals to strictly implement the Covid-19 SOPs laid down by the district administration. All the students from Kerala are required to quarantine themselves for a week, and a RT-PCR test must be conducted after a week. Colleges must have Covid care centres, and students in quarantine can attend online classes.

“Students, teaching and non-teaching staff travelling from Kerala must produce a RT-PCR negative certificate when the college reopens, and subsequently every week, even if the faculty is fully vaccinated. Classes for day scholars and boarders will be conducted separately. An inspection team has been constituted headed by the DDPU and including taluk health officials and college principals, to oversee the implementation of the guidelines,” he said.

Once the admission process is complete, I PU classes can start from September 15. However, every college has to take permission from the DDPU, before commencement of on-campus classes.

C D Jayanna, DDPU said: “Since II PU is a critical year for every student, we had requested the district administration to consider commencement of on-campus classes. Last academic year, students had to be promoted despite no examination being held. This batch has hardly attended classes on campus, since their admission to I PU, last year. Online classes will continue parallelly,” he said.