DU teachers’ stir likely to delay semester results

NEW DELHI: Delhi University’s teachers’ refusal to check answer sheets is likely to delay results this year, especially leaving final year students in the lurch.

NEW DELHI: Delhi University’s teachers’ refusal to check answer sheets is likely to delay results this year, especially leaving final year students in the lurch.

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The boycott is likely to go on at least till Thursday when teachers take stock of the situation again. It began on May 24 — a few days after the evaluation began. DU admissions also may get affected because of the agitation.

Teachers have said they won’t evaluate answer sheets unless UGC’s new norms are rolled back. Some students had written to Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) president Nandita Narain requesting that evaluation be resumed.

On Monday, Narain wrote an open letter to all students saying they were keen as well to go back to evaluation, but the government left them with no choice.

“The ongoing battle against degradation of public-funded higher education cannot be won without active participation by students,” said Narain in the letter.

Evaluation is a long process in DU which has more than 160,000 students. At least 800,000 papers have to be checked. Close to 3,000 teachers evaluate these answer sheets every day at 13 evaluation centres over two months. Results usually start coming out by last week of June. With 20 days of evaluation already lost, delays this year are certain.

MAY AFFECT HIGHER EDUCATION

Students are worried that the delay in publishing results may hamper their higher education prospects as most institutions require them to submit marksheets and a provisional degree by August at the latest.

“I have applied for masters in colleges across the country and most of them want me to submit my final marksheets by August. I have also applied in foreign universities and they also want my final score as soon as possible,” said Devika Sharma, a third-year student at Miranda House.

DU’s academic year is to start by July 20. “After the evaluation process is completed the examination department requires 25-30 days to complete the process. So we are already far behind schedule,” said an official of the examination department.

The teachers will protest again on Tuesday with a Satyagraha. “We were to hold the Satyagraha at Rajghat but were not given permission. So we will sit in protest at Jantar Mantar on Tuesday,” said Ashwini Shankar, associate professor history at Deshbandhu College

The teachers are protesting against UGC’s notification that will, teachers say, bring down the number of teaching positions by 50% with ‘unreasonable’ terms of promotion. The notification also increases the assistant professors’ workload from 16 hours per week to 22 hours per week.