Agitation and unrest to grow
Teachers and students of Delhi University wish to express their anguish against MHRD and blame the Government for the rushed implementation of CBCS through statutory violations. By taking consent from the Vice Chancellors for implementation of CBCS prior to the approvals from the Statutory Bodies, the MHRD have strengthened the hands of the Vice Chancellors who have used universities as their fiefdoms. Today the teachers do not know where to represent on the matter statutory violations which have taken place in implementation of CBCS as the very institutions – the UGC and the MHRD –responsible for maintaining quality in education by ensuring that Universities follow due processes seem to have given the go ahead for these violations.
The Academic Council approved on 13 July without a proper vote more than hundred courses in a vitiated atmosphere where critical interventions, academic scrutiny and drawing attention to procedural lapses were met by taunts and intimidation as well as retorts that the courses must be passed not on academic arguments but because the Government / UGC wish them to be implemented. The members of the Academic Council received agenda papers by email as late as a day before the Academic Council meeting covering more than a hundred courses and running into many thousand pages. Despite it being humanly impossible for members to peruse the excessively large agenda, the courses were approved.
Over 100 annexures pertaining to this item were emailed to the EC members at 1:10 am for a meeting scheduled for 11 am. This is a mockery and insult of the statutory bodies and processes laid down to ensure quality reforms.
Further, the DU Press Release says that “The University is pleased to note that the Academic Council discussed all aspects of the CBCS that also included the examination and grading processes and accorded approval to the proposals of conduct related to these issues as well.” It is unfortunate that the University through its Press Release is misinforming the public on the matter. The matter was never discussed in the Academic Council. The annexures pertaining to this important aspect were never emailed to the Academic Council members. The annexures were tabled in the meeting (soft copies made available on the laptops provided to the members). In a shameful manner agenda items were declared “Passed” without discussion. There was no application of mind to the matter. Till date students, who are victims of the hurriedly imposed semester system and FYUP, are suffering from ill-devised rules passes in a similar fashion.
The matter on Examination and Grading was deferred in the Executive Council as the protest grew louder. While 22 elected Academic Council members dissented in the Academic Council at the brazen manner in which life-defining issues were rushed and declared passed in the Academic Council yesterday, 6 Executive Council members dissented including the Chancellor’s nominee Shri Javed Chowdhury, Court members Ajay Kumar, J. L. Gupta and Rajesh Gogna and the elected teachers’ representatives Abha Dev Habib and Ajay K Bhagi (See dissent note).
In the EC meeting held today, the Chancellor’s nominee, Shri Javed Chowdhury, emphasised that even if the University passes courses, it should implement it only next year as the admissions are almost complete and the University could have offered only those courses which were in place as per the Act. He warned that the final responsibility to uphold the Act and not commit illegality lies with the University.
The EC meeting was abruptly ended at 1:45 pm as meeting of the Court was scheduled for 2 pm today. Other agenda items including forming of Governing Bodies were deferred.
To protest implementation of the CBCS, the DUTA had organized a Continuous Dharna at the gate outside the VC’s office for two days in which a large number of teachers and students participated. Nilotpal Basu, former Rajya Sabha and Ashutosh, President, JNUSU participated in the Dharna in solidarity and support. In order to send out a strong message to the Government, the Academic Council members did a 24 hour sit-in in the Council Hall.
In an unprecedented manner, 28 members of the Court submitted a Protest Letter to the Vice Chancellor on the implementation of CBCS. The members expressed their strong disapproval of the statutory violations by the DU administration to implement CBCS. They pointed out that the imposition of syllabi made by the UGC, whether with 20% or 30% variation allowed, was in conflict with the Delhi University Act which empowers the University statutory bodies for this purpose. The matter of CBCS was, however, not listed in the agenda of the Court.
It is unfortunate to see that the DU administration in its Press release yesterday has tried to belittle the growing opposition to CBCS by saying that it is premeditated keeping in mind the forthcoming DUTA elections. All teachers’ groups are united in their struggle against this ill-devised “reform”. As opposed to what the DU press release claims, neither the Colleges nor the University are prepared for the drastic changes that the decision to introduce CBCS right away will entail .It will immediately result in chaos with delay in timetables as Colleges struggle to make sense of the new courses, find adequate classrooms and appoint teachers. That students will be the victims of this cynical exercise of power is obviously not a concern of the University administration. The DUTA struggle on CBCS is based on the feedback of Staff Associations of over 54 colleges. The struggle has been joined by students’ groups. In fact the struggle against CBCS is growing and their seems to be a “seamless” opposition as teachers of various universities have voiced their concerns and objections to the structure, content and intent of CBCS and other current “reforms” in Higher Education.
Slogans rent the air criticizing government policy and the anguish amongst teachers and students against these anti-people reforms which want to push public funded higher education into the PPP model.
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