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Press Release, 15.10.2012

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The DUTA Indefinite Relay Hunger Strike is beginning to show signs of success as swathes of students, teachers and even parents have begun to show up at the Strike venue on its sixth day today. After a well-attended evening of cultural protest which saw the group Parcham performing topical songs like “Woh Humaarey Geeton Ko Rokna Chahte Hain” alongside poetry readings and street-plays performed by students and teachers of the University, the DUTA hit back on Monday with a large mobilization of students from college like B R Ambedkar College, Aditi Mahavidyalaya, as well as from the Campus colleges like Miranda House and St. Stephen’s College who had come to air their worries about the destructive academic “reforms” the VC is desperate to implement.

Students maintained that the academic scenario in Delhi University is being subjected to irreversible damage, even as they expressed their fears that the DU degree is getting devalued through dilution of courses, a general “dumbing down” of teaching-learning in a bid to cover the syllabi quickly and a move to dismantle the flagship honours programme with major-minor combinations which may leave students lacking in the fundamentals of academic disciplines. While students blamed government policy and a renegade Vice Chancellor for this mess, they also implicated the University’s Academic Council as they felt that it had not done enough to reign in the Vice Chancellor.

On the other hand, activists of the DUTA have warned ad-hoc teachers against believing in anything that the VC may be saying on the issue of appointments to the media. While it is the media’s job to report, the VC is playing with the hopes of thousands of young teachers by talking about starting appointments. The four-year undergraduate system offers free choice to students to decide on the modules they want to be taught. In such an eventuality, departments will never be able to decide their work-load with any certainty. As appointments depend on post-creation on the basis of workload, permanent appointments are likely to become a thing of the past if the four-year undergraduate model is passed. Combined with this, the 12th Plan also envisages more opportunities for existing permanent teachers to fill up the shortfall in different courses and colleges. This will mean a further reduction in job opportunities for the young teachers who are not yt permanent. Hence, the DUTA feels that its fight on the issue of academic reforms is inseparable from its demands for permanent appointments.

The DUTA is bracing itself for a more resolute and broad-based campaign against the Vice-Chancellor’s authoritarianism and cynical propaganda. As yet, there is no sign of any dialogue between the VC and the DUTA. Teachers have decided to have a “Barefeet March” through campus alongside the Hunger Strike on Thursday evening, in order to highlight the Right to Education and Right to Protest. Today, 12 teachers from Miranda House, St. Stephen’s College, Hansraj College, B. R. Ambedkar College, Aditi Mahavidyalaya and Arts Faculty are sitting on Hunger Strike. Teachers from more colleges and departments are expected to take over tomorrow.

S.D. Siddiqui, Secretary                                                     Amar Deo Sharma, President

https://duta.live

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