Delhi University (DU) teachers on Monday threatened to boycott the ongoing admission process if their demands are not considered by the Ministry of Human Resource Development.
The teachers have been agitating for over two weeks against the new UGC criteria regarding their academic performance.
The Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) will hold a General Body meeting on Tuesday to decide the future course of action.
“Given the current scenario of inaction and non-committal responses from the government, the DUTA may be forced to consider drastic measures like the boycott of the admissions process,” a statement by DUTA said.
DU teachers are currently boycotting the evaluation process for undergraduate examination.
Abha Dev, Executive Council member of DUTA said: “The commission has given us a very vague resolution and has not specified the tutorial hours, which earlier used to be included in the direct teaching hours.”
“We are very disappointed with the UGC response after we met them on Monday. We have told them that we want to get back to evaluating the papers and start the admission process, but if around 4,500 teachers lose their jobs, it will be impossible to do the work,” the member added.
Khali thali dharna
Meanwhile, scores of teachers and students came out in support of DUTA members, who held a ‘Khali Thali Dharna’ on Monday to protest against the latest notification of the University Grants Commission (UGC).
The notification increases direct teaching hours for assistant professors from 16 hours to 18 hours per week.
For associate professors and professors this has been increased from 14 hours to 16 hours per week. It also bases the promotion of a teacher on Academic Performance Indicators (API). The protesters carried empty plates signifying how the latest UGC notification has stolen their bread and butter.
Around 16 student unions have extended their support to the protesters.
Among those present at the protest site were AAP’s student wing Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti, Congress student union National Students’ Union of India and Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU).
Kanhaiya at protest
JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar was also there support the teachers. His presence was, however, not welcome by some teachers who argued that “his presence would deviate the demand and that there shouldn’t be any controversial issue.”
Speaking to The Hindu , Mr. Kumar said: “There is a strong teacher-student unity since a long time. When we were protesting against the scrapping of fellowship, the DUTA supported our movement. Recently when there was an attack on the universities, the DUTA took a strong stand for us. It is our prime responsibility to support the teachers’ movement.” The agitation also drew support from Congress veteran Dr. Kiran Walia. “Ït is time for Smriti Irani to go back to the TV box where she was so successful,” she said.
(The writer is an Intern with The Hindu)
The association will take a call on Tuesday on whether to boycott ongoing admission process
