Delhi University's committee faces criticism for not having teacher representative

NEW DELHI: Delhi University (DU) constituted a seven-member committee last week to discuss the teacher-student ratio and the strength of student groups for lectures and practical and tutorials within the campus. However, the committee did not include any teacher representative in the team which invited criticism from the teachers’ front as most members were administrators. 

The varsity, on July 25, issued the notification stating that a committee has been constituted to study, discuss and revisit provisions related to the teacher-student ratio, practicals, and tutorials conducted, among other aspects.

Prakash Singh, director of the University of Delhi South Campus (UDSC) has been appointed as the chairperson while professor K Ratnabali, Law Centre-I, Professor Ashok Kumar Prasad from the Chemistry department, Professor Ashutosh Bhardwaj from Physics and Astrophysics department, Professor Rajiv Aggarwal, principal Deshbandhu College and Dr Bhuwan Jha from Satyawati College are the members and SK Prakash, Joint Registrar SDC is the member secretary.

Commenting on the notice, Abha Dev Habib, Secretary of Democratic Teachers’ Front (DTF) and former member of the academic council, DU said, “Only the outcome can tell whether it’s a good initiative or not. Why no teacher representatives were part of such an important committee? It will govern the teaching-learning environment as well as workload, hence employment. Most of the members are administrators and hence will be guided by other considerations.”

“The committee will be taking up some important issues such as the teacher-student ratio since we all know that the university is already facing a shortage of teachers. Also, we have apprehensions that for the fourth year in the current academic session, the UGC will not be giving us more teachers.”

She added, “We need to get teachers who can take up real issues. The selected principals can only talk on behalf of their respective colleges. We have larger issues to talk about. We need to talk about having more teachers and the infrastructure required accordingly.” Nandita Narain, president of DTF, said, “This will simply endorse the UGC IDP stipulation of 25:1 and 30:1. This will cause massive loss of posts.”