chennai classes of students of any two years alone should be held on any given day and hostels students should be under a 14day quarantine even if they test negative for covid19 the state government has directed arts and science colleges and polytechnics across the state in engineering colleges if there is space constraints to maintain social distancing any two years have to attend classes in a dayin an effort to ensure social distancing the government came out with a fresh set of standard operating procedures sops a day after institutions across the state reopened for all under graduate and postgraduate students according to the new guidelines no more than 50 of the students should be present on the campus at any given pointinstitutions have also been asked to break each class into multiple sections with one in every three seats kept vacant and allowed to extend teaching hours as per the requirementswhile advising institutions to generally avoid holding cultural and sports activities the government said such events could be conducted if physical distancing could be ensured the sop also mandated institutions to maintain airconditioning in the 24c to 30c rangein view of the covid cluster at iit madras the state government has added new protocols with regard to reopening hostels since many hostel students come from different locations they shall remain in quarantine and selfmonitor their health for a period of 14 days before being allowed to attend classes even if they bring a negative test report chief secretary rajeev ranjan said in the ordersharing of rooms will not be allowed in hostels meals should be served in small batches and takeaway options made available for students and staff hostels should define the number of students in dining halls at any point in time mess timings should be increased to avoid overcrowding the order saidseveral college principals however said maintaining 14 days quarantine was not practically possible we can maintain less than 50 student strength by dividing classes into batches or asking only science students to attend physical classes but quarantining hostel students for 14 days is difficult said one principalanother principal on a condition of anonymity said the government was allowing 100 occupancy in buses and theatres but asking colleges to maintain 50 strength anna university released a staggered academic schedule to maintain just one student per room in hostels after classes for first year students began on monday the state government also permitted teacher training institutes to function with up to 25 students per classroom the authorities have also been allowed to conduct typewriting exams in march and april by following covid19 protocols