The working conditions of ad-hoc teachers and the new four-year undergraduate course are the two main items on the agendas of most candidates competing for a seat in the Delhi University Teachers’ Association elections scheduled to be held inside the Arts Faculty on the North Campus on Thursday.
The Left-affiliated Democratic Teachers’ Front (DTF) that won the elections last year has fielded St. Stephen’s College Mathematics teacher Nandita Narain as their presidential candidate.
The DTF has been credited with carrying out a large number of agitations against the administration, the most vociferous being the fight against the new four-year undergraduate programme. Continuing the fight for teachers’ interests against the “authoritarian” regime of the current administration is the DTF’s main agenda.
The Academics for Action and Development has split into two, one with three-times DUTA president Aditya Misra as its chairman. This AAD has teamed up with the Congress-affiliated INTEC. They have jointly nominated Desh Bandu College teacher Ashwini Shankar as their presidential candidate. They will keep the plight of ad-hoc teachers and promotions of permanent teachers as its primary agenda.
“We will agitate against the implementation of bio-metric attendance; we have already been instrumental for the recent decisions regarding promotion norms,” said Dr. Misra.
The other AAD which has Janmejoy Khuntia as its chairman has fielded Prof. Shiba Panda as its presidential candidate. “We have appealed to the Vice-Chancellor and his team to create an atmosphere of trust and goodwill so that the DUTA can contribute constructively to higher education,” said Dr. Khuntia.
