Alifiya Khan

Meanwhile, at the state-wide consultation meeting, V-Cs expressed their concern over the growing pressure from student organisations, parents and even colleges to resume physical classes.

Stating that the entire budget has been aligned to the roll-out of the new National Education Policy, Dr Vidya Yeravdekar, pro-chancellor of Symbiosis International (Deemed) University said allocating Rs 50,000 crores towards NRF would give Indian universities the money to invest in doing research which was lacking so far. However, educationists in the K12 sector, opined much was left out.

Suresh Jagtap, additional commissioner of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), said 398 of 950 schools, including private and PMC-run schools, started classes for students of Class V to VIII.

Many also demanded that educational institutes be directed to lower their fee and the students be given time to make the payments.

The exams will be conducted in compliance with Covid-19 norms, said Maharashtra School Education Minister Varsha Gaekwad

This is the unique contest started by a restaurant in Wadgaon Nmaval, on the outskirts of Pune, where the owner is offering a Royal Enfield to any customer who can finish off the newly introduced 'Bullet thali'.

With five private rooms and two dormitories with a capacity of eight persons each, the resort is expected to cater mostly to trekking groups and families. The corporation will also be starting a small restaurant on site.

While there are nearly 30 residential buildings and societies on the affected stretch, residents of 16 of these came together to form the ‘Anandvan Parisar Residents Forum’, which had its first meeting on Sunday evening.

In a proposal tabled by principal Dr Sanjay Kharat, it was pointed out that there has been a considerable delay in conducting admissions, especially in professional courses offered by colleges affiliated to the university.

Criticising the "interference" into the decision to reopen colleges, Senate members termed the act as an “attack on the autonomy” of the university

The number of students returning to classrooms is multiplying every day but it is not without resistance as some find it difficult to convince parents.

Considering the delay in the admission process and the challenges before junior colleges to complete syllabus in limited rounds, Maharashtra government has now announced the return of the first-come, first-served admission rounds for all remaining FYJC seats.

As normalcy returns to school classrooms, university and college students are now facing uncertainty over the prospect of returning to campus.

Senate member Santosh Dhore mooted a proposal to waive fees of students in hostels and process refunds if fees have been taken besides proposing a policy to prevent academic loss of students who are unable to take online education.

As far as first-year UG and PG students are concerned, classes would start in offline mode from January 11 for students enrolled in non-professional courses whose admission has not been conducted by the Common Entrance Test (CET) cell.

According to figures available with the local authorities, only 44 schools across the city started on Monday. Of the 529 schools in the city, 22 municipal schools and 22 private schools reopened on Monday, said Suresh Jagtap, additional commissioner of the PMC.

From not receiving COVID negative test reports of teachers to delay in permission from the local body to start school and even a 'wait-and-watch approach to see if the government changes its mind on reopening schools, the reasons were varied.

While sanitisation measures have been stepped up and physical distancing norms are being worked out, school authorities are worried about the distribution of workforce and online-offline distribution of students.

Jointly offered in association with CloudThat Technologies, a Microsoft Gold Partner, the course is the university's foray into the new-age Data science, AI, ML, Cloud computing, Internet of Things and Cybersecurity technology domain.

Finding a way to bridge the same, the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) to impart job skills to their students.

The course is being offered by the Pune Knowledge Cluster in association with the Serum Institute of India (SII), and will start from January 15.

DR Nitin Karmalkar, vice-chancellor of Savitribai Phule Pune University, the biggest state university in Maharashtra with over 800 affiliated colleges, discusses with Alifiya Khan the challenges the university faced and what lies ahead.

Teaching was done through storytelling, sometimes stories were made up by both the teacher and the students together and these were then recorded to share with other students later.

Affected students and their families have come from Nashik, Ahmednagar and rural parts of Pune, camping at the university premises since Wednesday as a last-ditch attempt to be heard.