All-India Teachers’ Convention
“Higher Education in Crisis”
Organised by Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA)
Press Release, 13.8.2012
The teachers assessed and expressed united opposition to the devious attempt, on the part of the Government, to withdraw from its all-important responsibility to educate people and push through legislations which will fold back the nation’s achievements in public-funded higher education and turn the valuable educational resources of the nation into the hands of foreign and local private profiteers. The consensus which emerged from this Convention is that the Government has deliberately adopted an anti-democratic approach to teachers’ service conditions and academic freedom in order to overcome any kind of opposition to its designs. The participating teachers’ organizations converged to give a call to all teachers to defeat the Government’s anti-people agenda in higher education by fighting composite struggles against all forms of unilateral authority and bureaucratic infringement on academic issues.
A resolution was passed to this order. The suggested action programmes against the Education Bills included a One-Day Strike to be observed across the country and to build all-India widespread struggles on the issue. (Please scroll down for the detailed resolution adopted.)
The Convention also took a serious note of the fact that Prof Dinesh Singh, Vice Chancellor, DU has not met DUTA Office Bearers despite repeated requests. The Convention passed the following resolution (proposed by Prof. Attar Singh- Secy., AIFUCTO North Region; seconded by Prof. D K Lobiyal, President, JNUTA) in this regard:
“The Convention condemns the negative attitude of the Vice Chancellor of Delhi University towards elected teachers’ representatives, which he expresses by not meeting with DUTA, the most democratic teachers’ organization of the country, for the last one year.”
The text of the detailed Resolution that was adopted is as follows:
Convention Resolution
The Education Bills before the Parliament are concrete steps by the Government to institutionalize privatization leading to commodification of Higher Education. The Bills, if passed, will exclude the majority of the people from Higher Education. The Bills aim at the regimentation of teaching-learning processes, centralisation of academic governance and homogenisation of curricula – both representing an attack on the federal character of the constitution, as well as the transfer of State-nurtured assets into the hands of private players for profit-making. Another direct consequence of these Bills is the denial of teachers’ right to participate in policy decisions through dialogue and democratic processes and the institutionalisation of
arbitrary and autocratic methods of governance. These Bills, which aim at redefining Higher Education completely and fundamentally, have not been discussed with the stakeholders especially with Teachers’ Unions and Associations. The slew of bills currently before the Parliament has to be seen as part of a policy move to bring higher education under GATS in order to facilitate appropriation and expatriation of profit by foreign educational providers.
This Convention takes serious note of the continuous undermining of autonomy and self- governance of institutions of higher education by the MHRD and the strong-arm tactics being used by the administrations of these institutions to bulldoze “reforms”. The present dispensation does not hesitate to violate the Statutes, ordinances and regulations enshrined in the various Acts through which universities have been created. The Vice Chancellors have invoked emergency and discretionary powers in policy matters with utter disregard for existing statutory consultative mechanisms and democratic
participation in decision making. This Convention notes with deep regret that the university authorities are systematically and deliberately downgrading the statutory bodies in academic decision making. This Convention voices its protest against the deliberate refusal on the part of Vice Chancellors and University authorities to engage with democratically elected unions and collective bodies of
teachers, students and non-teaching employees.
The recent imposition of various “academic reforms”, like modularization, semesterization and credit transfer, creation of meta-university, meta colleges and off-campus centres have happened without due consultations with teachers, students and all those affected by these policies. These “reforms” are meant to facilitate commercialization and are being implemented across universities without any regard to the real needs of the people of this country. Therefore, they have to be understood in tandem with the proposed legislations.
This Convention observes that despite an accelerated growth of private educational institutions,
successive Governments have displayed no will or inclination to bring legislations that would provide for Reservation in these institutions. This also forces us to conclude that expansion of Higher Education through increased Privatization and Private-Public Partnership is antithetical to social justice, inclusiveness and equity.
This Convention expresses grave concern about the sharp increase in contractualisation of teaching through part-time, guest, ad-hoc and temporary appointments as further symptoms of this systematic withdrawal of State responsibility from Higher Education. Neither are existing teaching posts being filled and nor are new teaching posts being created as per requirements even after the OBC expansion and new courses being introduced. Contractualisation is driving young talent away from the teaching profession, which has further led to an acute shortage of eligible teachers and to a negative impact on the quality of education.
This Convention also takes cognizance of the fact that the last Pay-Revision became effective from 1 January 2006. Yet the serious problems in the accompanying changes in service conditions highlighted in numerous representations submitted by teachers’ organisations, including the irrational move to quantify the evaluation of teachers’ performance, are still pending before the Anomalies Committee set up by the UGC. The indefensible delay makes a mockery of the purported reasons for setting up the Committee and of the declarations made by the MHRD and the UGC at the time of the Pay-Revision that the changed pay and service
conditions were aimed at attracting talent to the teaching profession. This convention demands that for future Pay Revisions, the issue of pay revision should be delinked from service conditions. The service conditions should be framed separately by the Universities through statutory processes aiming at ensuring quality education and institutional growth.
In the face of this concerted
assault, this Convention gives a call to all teachers’ associations to unite and wage joint-struggles. The non-profit character of the educational system cannot be replaced by any system which aids and legitimises profit-making. The Convention is of the firm belief that the only way in which Higher Education can contribute towards nation-building is by being inclusive and equitable. The Convention sees
State funding as essential for ensuring access, equity and quality in Higher Education and therefore seeks the strengthening of public-funded Higher Education. It reiterates the long standing demand that Government expenditure on education be increased to at least to 6% of the GDP. It demands the withdrawal of the Higher Education Bills and the reversal of the policy of privatisation and commercialization. It demands an end to the contractualisation of teaching, the urgent filling of teaching posts and the immediate resolution of the pending problems in teachers’ service conditions. It also demands the immediate implementation of the 2006 UGC guidelines on reservations in appointments at all the
entry-level posts. The Convention demands increased democratic representation of teachers, students and non-teaching employees in the decision making bodies at College, University and State levels to prevent the systematic erosion of democratic rights. The Convention gives a call for a widespread resistance to revive and expand
public-funded Higher Education to meet the legitimate aspirations of the people. It appeals to teachers’ associations across the country to chalk out concrete united action programmes for this purpose.
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Adopted unanimously by the Convention
Participating Teachers’ Associations: Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA), Federation of Central University Teachers (FEDCUTA), All India Federation of College and University Teachers (AIFUCTO), Rajasthan University Teachers’ Association (RUTA), Punjab University Teachers’ Association (PUTA), Tripura University Teachers’ Association (TUTA),Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association (JNUTA), Aligarh Muslim University Teachers’ Association (AMUTA), IGNOU Teachers’ Association, IP State University Teachers’ Association, Allahabad University Teachers’ Association (AUTA) Jamia Teachers’ Association, Jamia Hamdard Teachers’ Association, All India Forum for Right to Education
S.D. Siddiqui, Secretary Amar Deo Sharma, President
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