The DUTA has learned that the MHRD has taken a final call in favour of scrapping the disastrous Four-Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP). The DUTA welcomes this move and expresses appreciation for the prompt initiative that the new HRD Minister, Smt. Smriti Irani, has taken in this regard. The DUTA has combated every move to dilute equity in higher education, especially changes that may effectively threaten people’s access to good-quality public-funded education. The FYUP is a deeply iniquitous programme, designed to force students from economically weaker sections to discontinue their degree education in regular colleges. The DUTA has demanded a roll-back of the FYUP on the basis of a unanimous resolution against it, passed in its General Body Meeting of 31 January 2014.
The DUTA also urges the HRD Minister to facilitate the revival of the annual mode of teaching-learning in the undergraduate courses of Delhi University. The semester system was forcibly introduced in keeping with the entire process of restructuring that culminated in the FYUP. It forces modularised papers on teachers and students, with the result that teachers are forced to hurriedly cover syllabi and cater indifferently to the varied learning needs of students. The semester system has also made it impossible for students to study any subject in depth. Its disproportionate focus on evaluation and examinations has alienated the largest sections of students from the joy of learning. It brought about the delinking of the degree programme followed in SOL and the regular colleges. This gave rise to the eventual objections raised by the Distance Education Council about the lack of parity in degree programmes in DU. The semester system has also brought about fluctuations in workload which does not allow colleges and departments to create stable teaching posts. Close to 5000 teachers are hence forced to continue indefinitely on short-term contracts. This situation has had a detrimental effect on the stability and quality of teaching-learning in the University.
Delhi University has suffered due to the complete indifference of the DU Administration towards the plight of students, teachers and karamcharis. The architect of the FYUP, the current Vice Chancellor, has introduced an undemocratic and authoritarian mode of governance whereby students and teachers are threatened and discouraged from expressing independent ideas. His distrust of the University’s primary stakeholders has resulted in a reign of terror. The DUTA has also demanded the removal of the Vice Chancellor and hopes that the MHRD will respond to this demand with equal alacrity. The DUTA is confident that the current VC’s exit will pave the way for the immediate filling up of teaching vacancies, the correct implementation of the Government’s Reservation Policy and the restoration of justice, parity and dignity for the University community.
NANDITA NARAIN HARISH KHANNA
President, DUTA Secretary, DUTA
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Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA)
Day Centre Building, Chhatra Marg
University of Delhi, Delhi-110007
Tel: 27667822, 27666351, 27667725/1697
Website: https://duta.live
https://duta.live
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