Unusual scenes were witnessed Thursday at Government College for Women, M A Road and and the adjacent SP College after two candidates wearing PPE kits were escorted by the staff from the main gate to ‘special rooms’ where they wrote the Common Aptitude Entrance Test (CAET) held by the Cluster University Srinagar of which the two prestigious colleges are constituents.
The unprecedented arrangement was part of the many Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) mandated by the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic as the two girls had contracted the virus right before the entrance test to undergraduate programmes thereby posing a challenge to the university administration.
“Being a competitive examination, it could not be held afresh (for the two students), so we put in place special arrangements for the two students beforehand including two dedicated rooms and PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) kits, ” Registrar CUS, Prof Khursheed Ahmad told Greater Kashmir.
Prof Khursheed said that the two students along with their parents had rightly reported to them well ahead of the entrance test about having tested positive for COVID-19 thereby necessitating the special arrangements.
Given the crowding of students outside the colleges, the duo was asked to reach the examination venues relatively later, Prof Khursheed said.
A total of 7,657 aspirants had registered for the entrance test held at 15 centres from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm, informed Prof Khursheed.
The 15 centres had been set up at colleges and higher secondary schools in Srinagar city, he added.
Dr Khursheed further informed that all the mandatory COVID-19 SOPs including thermal screening and provision of social distancing among the aspirants inside examination halls had been put in place in a bid to contain the spread of the disease.