Vacations: Govt, varsities not on same page

Vacations: Govt, varsities not on same page

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad:02.05.2021 

There seems to be a lack of coordination between the universities and the state government over summer vacations.

Several universities have recently announced vacations on their own. So the government, it appears, was compelled to announce a common vacation schedule before more universities came forward with such announcements, said sources aware of the matter.

The Gujarat government announced vacations for all universities and colleges in the state from May 1to June 5 amid the prevailing Covid-19 situation.

A few universities had declared vacations ahead of the state government’s announcement due to the worsening Covid-19 situation. For instance, North Gujarat University announced its May vacation a few days ago. On Friday, ahead of the state’s announcement, Gujarat Technological University announced its vacation from May 3 to June 2.

“There was pressure from faculty and other staff members to announce the summer vacation from May,” said a source in GTU. “Since there was no such announcement till the last week of April, the universities began announcing vacations on their own.”

The decision by the state government came after concerns were raised by student bodies and faculty members against the instruction to staff and faculty members to work at colleges and universities. The government had made it compulsory for colleges and universities to continue running at half the staff strength on the rotational basis.

The government began reopening schools and colleges from January this year after they had remained closed for over nine months due to Covid-19. But soon the government decided to shut them down as Covid-19 cases began rising in the state. Online education resumed.