The Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) on Tuesday organised a protest on Parliament Street in protest against the “apathy of the Ministry of Human Resource Development towards issues concerning teachers not only from DU but universities across the country”.
The teachers felt their repeated demands over long-standing issues to the University Grants Commission (UGC) and Ministry had been falling on deaf ears, particularly the failure of the Ministry to implement revised allowances and pensions consequent to the VII pay revision, and disbursal of funds required for its implementation.
‘Extremely unfortunate’
The teachers submitted a letter to Union Minister Prakash Javadekar. The letter stated it was “extremely unfortunate that despite promises to address these issues there was no movement whatsoever towards a resolution”.
“The appointment process is at a halt and regularisation of thousands of ad hoc teachers is dependent on withdrawal of the March 5, 2018, UGC letter asking for implementation of department/ subject-wise reservation roster and the subsequent freeze on appointments,” said DUTA president Rajib Ray.
The letter urged Mr. Javadekar to take up the issue in the upcoming Parliament session to promulgate an Ordinance so that appointments can begin immediately.
Education policy
The teachers also spoke about the Ministry’s education policy, which seeks to “fundamentally change the character, content and reach of public-funded education in the country”. This, the teachers said, includes steps such as tripartite MoUs, replacing grants by loans through HEFA, graded autonomy and categorisation of universities.
DUTA also highlighted its fundamental opposition to attempts by the government to “crush the voices of resistance” among teachers by bringing in CCS rules for teachers, teaching-evaluation under ESMA and “surreptitious” attempts to amend the DU Act.
Published - November 28, 2018 01:46 am IST
