Student-teacher exchange programmes cancelled over virus scare

Every year, school and college students were given opportunities to visit various places including foreign countries to acquire knowledge and skills as a part of their curriculum.

Similarly, various teachers and faculties of university and colleges will have knowledge-exchange programmes with their counterparts from other states.

This year also, the government had prepared a detailed plan to take more than 3,000 students of government schools and State-run colleges on various educational trips.

Likewise, about 1,000 government school teachers and professors from the State-run colleges were selected for knowledge exchange activity, which was already approved by the Ministry of Human Resource Development as a pilot project this year.

However, coronavirus threat has forced the authorities from both School and Higher Education Departments to stall all the in-station and outstation programmes of students and teachers.

A senior official from the School Education Department told DT Next that study trip for students to higher educational institutions, students’ exposure visits within the State and students’ trip to the science centres, museums, architectural places in Bengaluru, Mysuru and Hyderabad have been put on hold till the coronavirus threat situation gets defused.

However, the official said all the student programmes will be conducted once the Centre and the State declare visiting other states as ‘safe’.

Echoing similar views of the official from the School Education Department, a senior authority from the Higher Education Department also said that the proposed visit by students and faculty to technical institutions and universities in Spain, Taiwan, Japan and Malaysia for 15 days also stands suspended due to coronavirus threat.