The evaluation branch of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Friday, June 24, issued a notification that granted vacation/break for faculty members after a gap of three years with effect from June 27 to July 8. The decision was taken at the 160th meeting of the Academic Council held on June 21, as stated in the notice. The notice also said that the break should be issued without any extension of the current semesters. Deans/Chairpersons of School/Special Centres have been asked to ensure timely completion of teaching by arranging extra classes, wherever necessary.
The notice by the university comes after the JNU Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) had written to the Vice-Chancellor asking her to “synchronise” the academic calendar which was “disrupted” by the COVID-19 pandemic and the delay in the admission process, as per a report in The Indian Express. They said the faculty was denied vacation from 2020 and that this is impacting the quality of teaching and learning. The teachers had requested that they should be credited with 30 earned leaves as compensation for the period.
“We propose that the New Academic Calendar 2022-23 should provide one month of summer vacation and 15 days of winter vacation for the current academic year (i.e., 2022-23), which will ensure two three-and-half-month semesters in this year. The semesters should be synchronized with the usual academic calendar latest by February 2023, after which regular vacations should be granted,” the teachers said in the letter.
Additionally, the JNUTA had earlier urged the VC to convene an emergency meeting to discuss the leave applications of eight colleagues that were sent to a leave committee for scrutiny, which was not formed at the time when the applications for leave were made, as stated in their letter. They said that no tenure or other terms of reference have been specified for this committee and no procedure for its functioning has been defined.
The introduction of this new procedure for leave is “worrisome” and “perplexing” as “there already exist established, sound and long-standing academic and administrative procedures in place for their scrutiny and approval,” JNUTA said in the letter.
