DU teachers knock new HRD minister’s door over shortage of faculty

Delhi University teachers, who have been boycotting evaluation of exams since last month in protest against new UGC norms, on Friday wrote to HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar highlighting the shortage of faculty in the varsity.

DU Teachers Association (DUTA) president Nandita Narain said the number of students in DU had increased over years while thousands of posts of teachers were lying vacant.

“Despite an increase in seats due to reservations for OBC students since 2007 and the promise of additional posts to universities, over 4,500 posts in DU remain vacant with teachers working on ad-hoc or guest basis,” the letter said.

DUTA also pointed out that the high teacher-student ratio was affecting the quality of teaching and global ranking of the university.

“The UGC (University Grants Commission) has not released the second tranche of posts either, leading to extremely overcrowded classrooms and a very high student-teacher ratio that is not only affecting the quality of teaching but also the global rankings of our universities,” it said.

“The denial of promotions to lakhs of teachers across the country since 2008 has already resulted in downgrading of research and teaching in the universities, pushing the effective pay structure of university and college teachers way below that of All India Government Services, who have time bound promotions,” it added.

Teachers have been boycotting evaluation of undergraduate examinations since May 24 in protest against amendments to UGC regulations that, they argue, will lead to job-cuts to the tune of 50 per cent and drastically increase pupil-teacher ratio in higher education.

The boycott was later extended to undergraduate admission process as well which was called off after two weeks.

The new gazette notification has increased the workload for assistant professors from 16 hours of “direct teaching” per week (including tutorials) to 18 hours, plus another six of tutorials, bringing the total up to 24 hours. Similarly the work hours of associate professors have been increased from 14 to 22.