Odisha On COVID-19 Alert: Govt Advisory For University & College Teachers, Staff

Bhubaneswar: The Higher Education Department on Monday issued an advisory on coronavirus to the teachers and staff of all universities and colleges.

Here are the contents of a letter to the vice-chancellors of all state public and private universities and principals of all government, government-aided and unaided colleges by the Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Higher Education, Saswat Mishra:

— Teachers and other employees need not come to educational institutions unless they have an examination or evaluation duty. However, they must be available at their headquarter for any urgent/important duty, if need be.

—The inmates of residential hostels are free to go home if they so wish. However, the hostels must continue to run for those who decide to stay.

—IEC (information, education and communication) material about coronavirus must be displayed prominently at important places such as hostels, etc. Newspaper advertisements issued by the state government from time to time should be used as authenticated IEC material.

—Only sixth-semester examination 2020 and back-paper examination of the students appearing for the sixth-semester examination, if any, shall be conducted as per schedule. Precautionary measures such as cleaning of the chair and tabletop, maintaining a safe distance between examinees, hand sanitisation of the examinees and invigilators before entering the examination hall must be taken while conducting the examination.

–Other semester examinations are postponed till further order.