NEW DELHI: Hundreds of university teachers from across the country protested outside the UGC office here against a notification increasing their work hours and the college education regulator’s consultations with 15 teachers’ associations yielded nothing on Monday.
The Delhi University Teachers Association has decided to call a general body meeting on Tuesday after failing to get any assurance from the UGC on rolling back the notification. DUTA members, who have been boycotting the evaluation of undergraduate exams for last eleven days in protest, have threatened to boycott the admission process if their demands were not considered by the HRD Ministry. The gazette notification issued last month increased assistant professors’ work hours from 16 hours of “direct teaching” per week to 18 hours, plus another six of tutorials, bringing the total up to 24 hours. Similarly associate professors’ work hours have been increased from 14 to 22.
Protesting teachers say the new rules would leave about one lakh ad-hoc teachers jobless, close all promotional avenues and put an end to their research activities.
At the protest rally, the teachers were joined by Congress chief whip in the Lok Sabha Deepender Hooda, who promised to take the issues up through a calling attention motion in the House, said a DUTA statement. Left MPs D Raja and Nilotpal Basu, Congress leader Kiran Walia and JNU Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar also joined the protests.
UGC chairman Ved Prakash and his officials met representatives of over 15 associations, including the DUTA, AIFUCTO and the FEDCUTA. According to DUTA president Nandita Narain, all the representatives demanded the restoration of tutorials and practicals on a par with lectures in the direct teaching hours.
While the ministry last week defended the new UGC criteria for academic performance indicators, it ruled out any possibility of reducing in the number of teaching jobs.
Click pics of open defecators, Raj teachers told
Kota: The district education department in Jhalawar, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s home town and Assembly constituency, has asked government teachers to check open defecation in their respective school areas by going out on visit at 5 am to generate awareness and also click photos of those found relieving themselves in the open. The order, however, has not gone down well with teachers’ organisations which said such a job is inappropriate, particularly for female teachers.