Tribune News Service

Amritsar, December 8

Students from major city colleges are a harried lot as classes remain suspended for the ninth consecutive day on Wednesday owing to the bandh call of college and university teachers.

The teachers’ protest against the non-implementation of the 7th Pay Commission and reversal of the state government’s decision to delink from UGC began earlier this year after educational institutions were reopened for offline classes. There were continuous disruption of classes ever since, but when PFUCTO announced a complete education bandh across the state, students were the direct sufferers.

Earlier, when colleges were opened for offline classes, teachers’ protests were going on. At first, only one or two lectures were disrupted, but now a full week has been wasted. Of course, it affects our academic performance as most students from science courses need practical training as well, which is not possible due to the strike Yash, a BSc (Comp Science) student

QUltimately, students will be the ones affected adversely if the situation is not resolved soon. “No one is thinking about students. We have already wasted enough academic hours due to the pandemic and transition towards online education. Our loss will not be compensated Karthic, BA (designing and multimedia) student

The teachers are sitting on roads across the state, fighting for what is their right. UGC is a regulatory body and its regulations are like an act. They must be implemented in will and by delinking itself from UGC the state government is further endangering quality higher education Seema Jaitley, dist secy, PFUCTO

“Earlier, when colleges were opened for offline classes, teachers’ protests were going on. At first, only one or two lectures were disrupted, but now a full week has been wasted. Of course, it affects our academic performance as most students from science courses need practical training as well, which is not possible due to the strike,” shared Yash, a student of BSc (computer science). Yash along with several other classmates, is a hosteller, who is waiting for classes to resume. “This year has been tough for students as studies remained disrupted due to the pandmeic first and now only a month after resumption of offline classes, this strike happened. Syllabus is not complete and we cannot study ourselves or cram up everything. It’s a helpless situation for students as soon the year-end exams will be declared by GNDU and then we will have to rush with everything,” he said.

Karthic, another student of BA (designing and multimedia), too, said ultimately, students will be the ones affected adversely if the situation is not resolved soon. “No one is thinking about students. We have already wasted enough academic hours due to the pandemic and transition towards online education. Our loss will not be compensated.”

He said students from science stream are the worst affected. However, he also said teachers’ demands were legitimate and the authorities concerned must swiftly find a solution for student’s sake.

Meanwhile, PFUCTO members from the district said they were considering student’s concerns and would not let any loss of learning to happen. “We are well aware of the loss of academics that is being caused but our demands are legitimate and we were forced to sit on strike as our last resort. The decision to implement the 7th Pay Commission came in 2016 and ever since, we are waiting for the state government to act on it. Recently, when the CM visited GNDU, even the VC urged him that the implementation must happen. Yet the government remains unresponsive.

With the higher education minister assured Prof HS Kingra, president of the teachers’ body, to end his fast, we are hopeful that the notification might come soon in this regard,” said Seema Jaitley, district secretary, PFUCTO and GNDU area in-charge. Jaitley said education seems to be the least concern for the state government. “The teachers are sitting on roads across the state, fighting for what is their right. UGC is a regulatory body and its regulations are like an act. They must be implemented in will and by delinking itself from UGC the state government is further endangering quality higher education and livelihood of teachers,” she said.