Schools, colleges will reopen in Pune from Tuesday

Schools, colleges, private classes and theatres will reopen from tuesday, initially district collector Chandrakant Dalvi declared that it will open from monday. He however, urged teachers, rectors and house owners renting flats to students, to act as guardians in monitoring students for flu-like symptoms. State and Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) health officials as well as the civic administration are bracing themselves for the huge challenge of monitoring the H1N1 virus, as schools, colleges and theatres resume functioning after a gap of 13 days. The district administration is in the process of drafting guidelines for schools and colleges to avoid spread of H1N1 in educational institutes.

While the state government directive states that colleges, which had shut down owing to the swine flu scare, can be reopened on Tuesday, several higher education institutes in the city have decided to begin classes only on Thursday after a 10-day break. However, College of Engineering Pune (COEP) will reopen on Monday. "We had closed the college even before the government came up with the instruction on August 10. We have decided to begin classes from Monday after a break of nearly two weeks," said Dr Anil Sahasrabuddhe, director, COEP. "All postgraduate colleges of Symbiosis International University (SIU) will begin from Wednesday. Only Symbiosis School will reopen on Thursday," said SB Mujumdar, founder-director of SIU. State government also advised institute to take care about spread of Swine flu in educational institutes.