DU asks colleges to continue services of ad-hoc teachers

A section of Delhi University teachers have alleged that this letter issued by the DU administration is a desperate attempt to cover up for their decision which is both anti-teacher and anti-student.

Providing temporary relief to ad-hoc teachers, the University of Delhi has issued a letter to its affiliated colleges to continue their services on usual terms till permanent faculty appointment is done. A large number of ad-hoc teachers working in the English department are likely to go jobless with the introduction of the AEC course.

In its letter addressed to principals of various affiliated colleges of the Delhi University, the varsity administration has asked colleges to not disengage ad-hoc teachers for the time being and that they be allowed to continue on an ad-hoc basis on usual terms in the larger academic interests.

However, some of the teachers have alleged the relief is temporary and has been given under pressure. According to Rudrashish Chakraborty, Associate Professor in the Department of English at Kirori Mal College, the letter issued by the administration of the University of Delhi is a temporary relief to the ad-hoc teachers working across the colleges in the University for years. “It is also the result of the pressure created by the negative publicity of the UGCF in the press and the social media owing to its mindless and irrational decision to remove English even as an option in AEC course in the UGCF adopted by DU, he said.

The teachers have alleged that since the English department has been singled out for this reduction of compulsory lectures from its workload, the threat to the livelihood of the English ad-hoc teachers has been immediate. Hence the English teachers across the University protested against this arbitrary decision through collective petitions at various levels.

“It has been this collective struggle to demand the restoration of workload by the English teachers in particular which compelled the University to take cognisance of this letter and issue the notification today to retain ad-hoc teachers in the next session. DTF elected members in various statutory bodies, namely Rajesh Kumar and Biswajit Mohanty in the Standing Committee and Mithuraaj Dhusiya in the Academic Council relentlessly raised this issue in their respective fora which also compelled the DUTA leadership to have a dialogue with the University on this serious matter of the workload,” Chakraborty said.

Shortage of teachers at DU

The letter to Principals states that the University realizes that the ensuing academic session 2022-2023 is on and appointment of teaching staff on regular basis in various Colleges/Institutions may take time, the University feels that services of existing teaching staff appointed on ad hoc basis as per the guidelines be not dispensed with.

On the other hand, some of the members of the Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) have alleged that this letter issued by the DU administration is a desperate attempt to cover up for their decision which is both anti-teacher and anti-student.

“The decision is anti-student because it does not give the choice to students to do at least one language of her choice which can be outside the list of Indian languages under Schedule VIII. Secondly, this decision does not take into cognisance the diversity of the student community for whom English is one of the only link languages. And thirdly, this decision to remove English even as an option in AEC reverses an enabling provision in the University for students of North-east, Jammu and Kashmir and the Foreign Students who hitherto have been exempted from doing the Indian language and were allowed to take other options. While teaching Indian languages is welcome, to do so at the cost of English is a myopic act,” said Chakraborty.

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