The Congress on Wednesday demanded that the Centre take back a recent notification implementing budget cuts on Central universities that would abolish nearly 5,000 teaching posts at Delhi University (DU).
At a press conference here, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Ajay Maken said that the funding cuts would hit the quality of education at DU. On May 4, the University Grants Commission Regulations were amended to reduce funds by cutting teaching posts.
One lakh jobs at risk
Mr. Maken said that about one lakh teaching posts would be abolished at universities around the country, including 5,000 at DU, as the Union budget for higher education was cut from Rs.9,315 crore to Rs.4,286 crore.
“Not only will this hit the quality of education, but it will impact the 50 per cent of teachers, who are from the reserved categories. We demand that the government roll back this notification,” said Mr. Maken.
‘API is irrational’
Former Delhi Education Minister Kiran Walia, who taught at DU, said the notification for Academic Performance Indicator (API) to assess teachers was irrational. The new assessment mechanism would mean that the number of hours put in would be used to determine the quality of work.
“There are gold medal-winning teachers who will be out of jobs. Teachers need to devote time to research work, they can’t be assessed based on teaching hours alone,” she said.
The Congress’ teachers’ wing, INTEC, will hold a demonstration against the HRD Ministry on May 31, and would intensify its agitation if the notification is not rolled back soon, said Mr. Maken.
