The CBCS is being implemented at Delhi University with even less preparedness than the discredited FYUP. The DU administration disallowed any discussion in the Academic Council and the Executive Council on an issue which is going to impact the lives of over 60,000 students. The only argument given by the administration in the AC and the EC meetings of 21 January and 28 May 2015 was that this has to be put in place from session 2015-16 as the UGC and the MHRD have directed universities to do so. Lakhs of students are applying for admissions to Delhi University, but there is no clarity about courses, syllabi and examination scheme! While the AC and the EC amidst dissents were forced to adopt a one line resolution regarding implementation of CBCS from the year 2015-16, the statutory bodies till date have not debated on the course structure and syllabi. Our recent experience with rushed and top-down “reforms”, be it semester system at the undergraduate level or FYUP, is that they have damaged teaching-learning processes and the worst victims of these experiments have been students.
DUTA’s protest programme was supported by AISA, AISF, AIDSO, DISHA, PACHHAS, KYS, NEFIS, and SFI. Mr Amrish Pandey, an NSUI spokesperson, also attended the protest programme in solidarity with the students and teachers. Student leaders and teachers spoke about the urgent need for a pan-India movement against such half-baked reforms and more particularly in defense of public funded institutions of higher education. The speakers highlighted the fact that government education policies seem to enjoy “seamless mobility” from UPA regime to NDA. The education system, which is anyway reeling under extreme shortage of infrastructure, skewed student-teacher ratio and faculty crunch, can ill afford such hasty and mindless reforms like CBCS.
After the dharna, the DUTA Office bearers met the newly appointed MHRD Secretary, Sh. Vinay Sheel Oberoi and submitted its memorandum on CBCS and other pending issues in the University. The DUTA delegation explained the problems of CBCS in detail to the Secretary and demanded that its implementation should be stopped, otherwise it would destroy the careers of lakhs of students across the country.
The DUTA has also written to the Visitor reminding him about the action pending against the DU VC even after he has been issued a show-cause by the MHRD. A copy of the letter was also submitted to the Minister, HRD. The DUTA has reminded the Visitor of the distress in which the Vice Chancellor has pushed Delhi University through his misgovernance. The DUTA has apprised the Visitor of the various issues of teachers including denial of pension and promotions, violation of reservation policy, selection committees in variance with the UGC regulations and demanded to know why the VC being allowed to continue to inflict destruction on the University.
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