NEW DELHI: University teachers across the country are up in arms over a recent UGC notification that has increased their workload and has created a situation where in about 4,500 teachers in Delhi University and another one lakh across the country could be rendered jobless. A section of the teachers on Saturday met Congress president Sonia Gandhi to seek her support against their agitation and the demand for withdrawing the notification.
They argued that the gazette notification, issued last month, has made the academic performance indicators (API) system more stringent, which is detrimental to the interest of the ad-hoc teachers, especially those who are years in service and are waiting for regularisation of their positions.
The number of teaching hours has been increased to 18 hours from 16 hours in case of assistant professor as per the notification, 16 hours for associate professor and 14 hours for professor.
In addition, all of them would have to put in an extra six hours on tutorials and remedial classes, seminars and other administrative responsibilities. The enhanced working hours will leave no room for engagement of ad-hoc teachers, rendering them jobless.
“Approximately 4,500 teachers will be rendered surplus because of this in Delhi University and will lose their jobs,” said Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) president Nandita Narain. Former president of the body Aditya Narain Mishra, who had led a delegation to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, said teachers having all qualifications and expertise with long teaching experience would be facing no avenues for promotions due to stringent measures in the form of API.
According to the revised API, a teacher has to gain 60 points a year for a promotion which translates to 600 hours of teaching per year or 20 hours per week. According to the teachers, achieving the target will be impossible to meet even if a teacher takes no leave at all. The enhanced working hours would also affect the quality of research in the institutes.
Significantly, students with 75 per cent of attendance will evaluate the teachers, the report of which will also be taken into account for teacher promotions. A huge rally has been planned on Monday demanding rollback of the notification.