Preparation for vaccinating college students, but no vaccines to start

Aurangabad, May 21:

The higher and technical education department has undertaken a campaign to collect information of students to vaccinate them before the coming academic year. This is being done for the purpose of starting teaching in offline mode in universities and colleges. According to sources, 2.73 lakh students will have to be vaccinated in four districts under the jurisdiction of the university.

The education system has come to a standstill as the outbreak of corona continues to grow. The center had allowed the vaccination of citizens above 18 years of age from May 1. However, there is a shortage of vaccines and the vaccination campaign for 18 year and above was stopped immediately. On the other hand, the department of higher education has begun to coordinate statistics for the vaccination of students. But the question is when will the vaccine actually be given to the students. According to sources in the higher education department, the government is planning to vaccinate students above 18 years of age in universities and colleges, assuming that there will be an abundance of vaccines, even though the campaign has been stopped. Last month, the higher education minister held an online meeting with the vice-chancellors of all non-agricultural universities in the state. There was a discussion about the vaccination programme. Accordingly, the department is compiling statistics of students admitted for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in non-agricultural universities and colleges in their jurisdiction in the state. Accordingly nearly 2.73 lakh students in the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University and about 400 affiliated colleges in the jurisdiction of the university will have to be vaccinated.

Vaccination for offline teaching

Students are being taught through online lectures since last year due to the increasing prevalence of corona. However, due to non-availability of resources in rural areas, online education could not reach the students. Sources said that if the vaccination campaign is implemented in universities and colleges, it will be possible to provide offline education with the permission of the state government to protect the health of students in the coming academic session.