Pandemic takes fun away from academics

Students in the city upset about colleges being closed again due to spike in cases

Hyderabad: After a gap of 11 months, colleges and schools had reopened in February, albeit with restrictions and despite how students usually feel about going to colleges and attending classes, the reopening was welcomed by the lakhs of students who spent long months cooped up in their houses, without experiencing any campus life.

But, with the recent surge in the number of cases and the drastic upward curve of the number of new cases daily, colleges have been shut down again and students are definitely feeling negatively about it.

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For starters, most feel it is very demotivating as campus life is usually vibrant and there’s something or the other that happens in college.

“I am in my fourth year and was supposed to graduate this year but with this shutting down of colleges, it has been postponed and all of my plans have gone for a toss. This is very demotivating,” says Mrinalini, an Mechatronics engineering student from Hyderabad.

Holding a similar viewpoint is Priya Ramavarapu, another final-year B.Tech student, who says, “The exams have also been postponed and there’s a lot of uncertainty about future plans.”
While fourth-year students feel that about their future plans, students from lower-years are missing out campus life.

“My college actually conducted a survey to find out about the preferred mode of teaching and most of us actually selected offline mode. We were actually eager to spend time on campus and though we weren’t expecting any fests or usual activities, I was actually eager to go back to college. Also, the online classes aren’t as interactive as direct classes,” says Vasistha, a third-year electronics engineering student.

For most, the excitement about college is practically dead now and they wish the campuses to open at the earliest.

Some, like Shreya, a management student, actually planned a lot of activities after colleges reopened. “I was excited to meet friends again, organise debates or group discussions and other such activities that are only possible in a campus environment. I even shopped a lot for reopening but all the plans went kaput after the Covid second-wave started,” says Shreya.

The uncertainty of the future coupled with staying away from peers for such a long time has definitely taken its toll on students.

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