Jamia Millia Islamia reopens for final year PG students after 2-years closure

NEW DELHI: After a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19, the Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) reopened Wednesday with the resumption of offline classes for the final year students of all post-graduation courses. JMI spokesperson Ahmed Azeem told PTI that the first day of the resumption of classes was "successful".

The classes have resumed for students in the final years of 70 post-graduation courses. Azeem said that all the COVID-19 protocols were followed and it was ensured that the social distancing is maintained inside the campus. To welcome the students to the campus, the Jamia put up a banner, reading, "Jamia Millia Islamia welcomes final year students on the phase-wise reopening of University".

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Firdous Ahmed Barbhuiya, a final-year International Relations student, was elated to come to college for the first time to attend classes. "It is the first time, I have attended physical classes at Jamia. It was wonderful. Last three semesters we attended only online classes. Today we had two classes, we interacted a lot with the teachers,” he said.

Azeem said that ID cards, negative RTPCR reports were thoroughly checked at the gates before allowing the students to enter campus. "We maintained proper social distancing, documents were checked properly," Azeem said.

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Several students also complained that there was some inconvenience due to the RTPCR reports. "They did not allow students to enter for several hours who did not have RTPCR reports but after persistent efforts they allowed us. It was quite chaotic," said Hammad, a final-year PG student. Azeem noted that the attendance of the students varied across courses. "Several courses witnessed maximum attendance while in some courses, the attendance was quite low," he said.

The administration said they are expecting more students to arrive soon. Following an improvement in the Covid situation, the university last month notified that physical classes for final-year postgraduate students will resume from March 2 and for final-year undergraduate students from mid-March. Three dry canteens in the university were also opened from March 2 with the permission of the registrar.

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