Japanese dept short-staffed

Two teachers for six Japanese language courses and 300 students. This is the scene at the short-staffed department of East Asian Studies at DU.

Two teachers for six Japanese language courses and 300 students. This is the scene at the short-staffed department of East Asian Studies at DU.

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The courses include nine batches of two master’s, two full-time and two part time syllabuses.

“Though things were bad enough last year, this year we will have an additional batch of students of MA East Asian Studies to teach. The first students of this new master’s course will be going into their second year,” said Dr Unita Sachidanand, associate professor, Japanese language and literature.

To make things worse, this year there will be an additional intake of students under a further 9 per cent OBC quota.

“The hectic schedule leaves us little time to conduct research work and submit papers to the university,” said Sachidanand.

While other DU professors normally teach 12 hours of classes in a week, the two Japanese teachers end up teaching nearly double the hours. “We take around 20 hours of classes in a week,” said Sachidanand.

There is a provision in the prospectus that says the university can discontinue classes at the department any time it wishes. But Sachidanand feels that is not the solution.

“We don’t want to do away with the Japanese language courses, as they are in demand, both by students and the industry,” she said.

“But the fact remains that for the same courses other institutes such as JNU have 10 or more teachers.” Teachers now plan to take up the matter with the Academic Council.