Shri Prakash Javadekar
Hon’ble Minister
Human Resource Development
8 July 2016
Respected Shri Javadekar,
On behalf of the teachers of Delhi University, we extend to you our felicitations on assuming the responsibility of an important ministry and appreciate the solidarity you have always extended to our struggles in the past to defend and save public-funded education from destruction.
You must be aware that the teachers of Delhi University have been agitating for more than one month now and have been highlighting the crisis in higher education precipitated by consistent budget cuts and attempts to downgrade and downsize public funded institutions, thereby leading to a severe dilution of the quality of teaching-learning process.
We wish to bring to your notice the following issues:
1. Despite an increase in seats due to reservation for OBC students since 2007 and the promise of additional posts to universities, over 4500 posts in Delhi University alone remain vacant with teachers working on ad-hoc or guest basis. The UGC has not released the second tranche of posts either, leading to extremely over-crowded classrooms and a very high student-teacher ratio that is not only affecting the quality of teaching but also the global rankings of our universities. Highly qualified teachers are working in extremely humiliating, uncertain and exploitative conditions, having to seek renewal every four months, struggling for their vacation salary, and being denied increments, maternity leave, medical leave etc. Non-filling of posts also translates into non-implementation of the Constitutional requirement of Reservation. In the last eight years or so, Delhi University had held selection committees for very few departments and that too on the basis of a flawed Roster that has led to all-kinds of manipulations, anomalies and violations of the prescribed percentage of reservation. The DUTA has demanded urgent filling up of posts in all Departments and Colleges on permanent basis with a correct DOPT-prescribed Roster for SC/ST/OBC/PWD.
2. The denial of promotions to lakhs of teachers across the country since 2008 has already resulted in downgrading research and teaching in the universities, pushing the effective pay structure of University and college teachers way below that of All India Govt Services, who have time bound promotions. This is not only a huge setback for our service conditions leading to a flight of talent, but has made a mockery of the principle of parity between higher education teaching personnel and All India Services, that the Govt had itself adopted. The AIFUCTO and the FEDCUTA, along with the DUTA, have submitted several representations in the past to highlight the negative consequences of the irrational quantification of the work done by teachers through a bureaucratic and mechanical system of (PBAS/API) [Attached DUTA Response to PBAS/ API]. The inherent flaws of the PBAS/ API are evident from the fact that the UGC has had to revise it 3 times since its introduction in the last six years. We feel that the earlier system of promotions based on teachers’ self-appraisal regarding their teaching abilities & domain knowledge must be restored.
3. In Delhi University, the situation is very grim as thousands of teachers have not been promoted since 2008 because of the retrospective application of this system from 31.12.2008. This goes against the idea of prospective application of the PBAS as contained in the Regulations themselves. The UGC Regulations were adopted in Delhi University 17.8.2013 after the 2ndAmendment was notified. However, the promotion process did not take off and on 14.8.2014 the University, for reasons best known to the administration, decided to roll-back the system for implementation w.e.f. 31.12.2008. We would like to point out that Universities across the country adopted the UGC Regulations 2010 through amendments to their Ordinances to be implemented subsequent to such amendments. In no case has this system been implemented with retrospective effect. The negative consequences for Delhi University teachers as a result of this retrospective implementation are as follows:
a. Teachers have had to collect points retrospectively from 31.12.2008 which is completely illogical given that the PBAS was not in place on that date.
b. The system adopted in 2013 and subsequently rolled back to 31.12.2008 was based on the 2nd Amendment which had a rigid and inflexible system of capping which made promotion unachievable.
c. As a result, the situation prevailing in Delhi University is that promotion has been denied to thousands of teachers since 31.12.2008.
4. The UGC Gazette Notifications of 4 May 2016 lays down conditions for exemption from NET to PhD holders who registered before 2009. This is grossly unfair as the conditions cannot be fulfilled retrospectively. A large number of teachers have already invested their lives to the profession and it is only fair that they be granted a one-time exemption from NET.
You would agree that the above described scenario is not conducive for the growth of any institution. Public funded institutions will not be able to attract or retain talent which will further lead to erosion of quality of education. The consistent budget cuts will ensure that talent is forced towards private institutions.
We would also like to draw your attention to the fact that Delhi University embodies the hopes and aspirations of thousands of young people from across the country and from different socio-economic backgrounds wishing to study here as it is one of the few surviving universities that still provide affordable quality education while most universities and colleges in the country have been destroyed through inadequate numbers of teachers, high student-teacher ratio, low paid contractual jobs and absence of infrastructure.
We are extremely hopeful that your faith in the process of dialogue and discussions will help end the crisis in the university. We seek an appointment at the earliest to explain the issues.
Thanking you,
Yours sincerely,
https://duta.live
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