Long queues were seen at several bus stops across the Odisha Capital city Bhubaneswar on Sunday, where hundreds of students and parents waited to board buses for their respective home towns.
The situation unfolded after the Odisha government ordered to shut down off-line classes of UG and PG courses on Friday, which were just beginning to get steam.
With the Panchayat elections around the corner, many departing students complained that they would not get ideal study atmosphere in their native locations. Besides, poor connectivity in the rural areas is another hindrance the students rued off.
Speaking to OTV, a student said, “Classes should have remained open. Just like the cinema halls, the classes should have been allowed to run with 50 percent capacity on rotation basis.”
Pritirekha Das Pattnaik, the Warden of one of the Ladies' hostels in Ravenshaw University said, “As per the government directive, all the UG and PG boarders have been ordered to vacate their hostels. However, the Research Scholars are allowed to stay in the hostels provided they give a written undertaking by accepting all the consequences which may arise if they stay put.”
With the shutting down of colleges, the mid-semester examinations of +3 classes, which was scheduled to be held in a few days, has been postponed. Similarly, it is almost certain that the final semester examinations of both UG and PG classes will get delayed.
Vice Chancellor of Ramadevi Women’s University, Professor Aparajita Choudhury said, “The online classes will never be able to match the benefits of off-line classes. However, we will conduct the pending examinations through online mode.”