After many months of online classes for the students belonging to colleges in Tamil Nadu due to the Coronavirus infection pandemic, colleges resumed once again in November and direct physical classes were held for some time.
The recent very heavy rains forced the colleges in Tamil Nadu to be closed and the students have been learning through online. Point is that from the current semester the TN government has asked the colleges to resume physical classes for the students. The shocking truth is that many higher educational institutions do not have proper infrastructure now. It must be noted that many colleges are being used as Covid Care Centres for the public. There is not sufficient space available for the students for direct physical classes.
It was later brought to light by some officials that the number of seats in various government colleges has increased by atleast 25% this year but there has been no up-gradation of infrastructure.
According to a professor belonging to a government college in Chennai, there are few colleges in Chennai that do not have enough desks even now for the students. It would not be possible to conduct direct physical classes for the students by following Cobid-19 protocols in this situation.
It was mentioned by a principal of a government college that most colleges would be resuming offline classes or direct classes for the students from 29th of November for 6 days a week. He hinted that it was a GO or government order and the colleges must follow it compulsorily. He concluded that following covid-19 protocol would be tough.
As per the president of TN Government College Teachers Association Mr. T. Veeramani, not only infrastructure shortage is an issue but also the lack of enough teachers now. There are currently 7000 teacher’s posts that are not yet filled up. Though the student’s strength has increased, the strength of the teachers hasn’t increased yet.