Delhi University's (DU) committee to develop a mechanism to address the issue of classes not being taken by teachers draws flak. According to a varsity notification, a five-member committee comprising principals of different DU colleges will look into the issue of classes not being attended by professors and submit a report to the administration.
"The competent authority of the University of Delhi has constituted the following committee to develop a mechanism to address the concern that classes being not taken by the teachers," the notification issued on January 25 read. The committee has been asked to submit its report to the administration by February 25, as stated in a report by PTI.
However, this has drawn flak from the teachers community with several teachers associations alleging that late hiring of guest faculty and discontinuation of ad-hoc appointments has led to classes going unattended. In this regard, a statement issued by the Democratic Teachers' Front (DTF) said, "A university which has destroyed its human resources and diluted academic programmes is now questioning teachers! We fear that the aim of this exercise is to devise ways of targeting dissenting voices."
A member of the Academic Council Dr Maya John raised an objection to the constitution of the committee stating that the proposed examination by a committee comprising solely of principals of DU colleges, "smacks of authoritarianism and ill-intentions". Further, she alleged that the DU administration thrusts a huge number of School of Open Learning (SOL) examination duties on regular colleges and many colleges do not have an adequate number of classrooms to be able to simultaneously conduct a large number of such exams and regular teaching. "The immediate withdrawal of the circular and disbanding of the committee is hence necessary," she said.
The Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) teachers' organisation Academic for Action and Development Delhi Teachers' Association (AADTA) opposed the notification, saying "The attendance, timetable and service conditions of the teachers are governed by the concerned regulations and every teacher of DU complies with them with all sincerity, commitment and dutifulness."
