M Zahidul Haque
AFTER a long break, universities world over are preparing to re-open their campuses for the students, teachers and other auxiliary staff. In some cases, halls/dormitories have also been unlocked for student’s entry. Universities in Bangladesh are also getting ready for resuming their normal academic activities.
It has been said that the students of public universities will physically sit in the admission tests to be held soon under the cluster system.
In case of our campus, that is, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, post-graduate students have been allowed to make re-entry to their respective halls with a view to facilitate completion of their research and thesis writing. In addition, some under-grad students have also returned to the campus on various academic purposes including lab works.
Covid-19 caused by the ‘Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)’ has been a devastating pandemic since early 2020. The corona pandemic claimed so many lives, made hundreds of thousands of people sick, threatened public health, destroyed the economic foundation and created a long-term global effect. Only recently some vaccines have been invented and administered on humans that showed a significant result. But the efficacy and efficiency of the new COVID-19 vaccine are yet to be confirmed in real life application. The WHO Chief Tredros Adhannom Ghebreyesus said that progress on vaccines “gives us all a lift and we can now start to see the light at the end of the tunnel”. But he observed-“The pandemic still has a long way to run and decisions made by leaders and citizens in the coming days will determine both the cause of the virus in the short-term and when this pandemic will ultimately end”. So, we are to continue to maintaining cautions to protect ourselves against corona infection.
Some people are questioning whether they can stop wearing masks as some corona vaccines have been proved effective against Covid-19? The answer is ‘no’: we are to keep wearing masks because it would take a long time to jab all the people around the globe plus the coronavirus and active patients (both symptomatic and asymptomatic) are quite active!
Meanwhile, if we wish to re-open our universities and to run safely preventing the spread of COVID-19, we need to take cautionary measures inside the campus and classrooms plus to protect students and other campus inmates.
Before re-opening and running academic activities in full swing, all the rooms, classrooms, toilets, labs and equipment plus students’ hall must be cleaned and disinfected. Cleanliness has to be ensured for all the time.
Teachers and other staff must protect themselves and their students by strictly abiding by the following precautions:
• Wearing of masks
• Maintaining social distances
• Hand washing with soap either by cool water or warm water
• Practicing health and hygiene
• Coughing or sneezing into the elbow
• Using tissues and disposing of those in fixed bins after use
ONE IMPORTANT POINT OF CAUTION: It has been found in some observational studies conducted by some US universities that going outside of the campus and attending parties and social gatherings mainly by the students contributes significantly to the spread of coronavirus in the campus. So, surveillance at the campus entrances is very critical. Strict controlling system has to be enforced to monitoring students going outside of the campus. Surveillance cameras may be installed at the gates for close monitoring.
Another Point of PRECAUTION: Almost all the public universities in Bangladesh have Medical Centers. Some extra beds with necessary medical facilities should be arranged for emergency and treating sick students and also to periodically monitoring asymptomatic Covid-19 students.
The corona pandemic has tremendously impacted the education system; it has almost destroyed the discipline for learning among the students. So, it is much essential to re-open our educational institutions as soon as possible. True, for adjusting with the ‘new normal’ in pandemic and post-pandemic situation, some extra expenditure is involved which the Government needs to make available to the educational institutions including universities for the greater good.
(The author is a Professor in the Department of Agricultural Extension and Information System, at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka)
