Thousands of teachers march against new UGC rule

NEW DELHI: Thousands of Delhi University teachers along with their families marched the street of national capital on Monday in protest against the UGC 3rd amendment

NEW DELHI: Thousands of Delhi University teachers along with their families marched the street of national capital on Monday in protest against the UGC 3rd amendment regulation.

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The 3rd amendment regulation defines the service conditions for teachers. The new regulation will lead to thousands of ad-hoc teachers losing their jobs and also making promotion difficult. The regulation has altered the teaching hours of the assistant and associate professor and excluded tutorials and practical from direct teaching hours.

The morning rain failed to deter teachers as they marched from Mandi House under the banner of Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA). They were to march till Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) but they were stopped at the Parliament Street.

“We demand the complete roll back of UGC Gazette Notification (3rd Amendment), which will push thousands of working teachers out of their jobs. The API scheme imposed by MHRD is virtually denial of promotion,” said Rajesh Jha of Academics for Action and Development (AAD) and teacher at Rajdhani College.

As a mark of protest teachers have boycotted the evaluation process till Wednesday. Since May 24 the teachers have not been evaluating the examination papers.

On Monday, the staff associations of Hindu College, SRCC, PGDAV, Ram Lal Anand College, Zakir Hussain College and others had turned up in large numbers.

The ad-hoc teachers who faces the greatest threat from the regulation also turned up in large numbers. There are close to 5,000 ad-hoc teachers in different DU colleges.

“The march was a powerful clarion call for a widespread movement against the MHRD’s narrow parameters on workload calculation and impossible API targets for promotions. Teachers and students are resolute in their determination to not submit to the MHRD’s bullying and will leave no stone unturned to fight against attack on public-funded higher education,” said Nandita Narain, DUTA president.

Teachers under the umbrells of the Indian National Teachers Congress (INTEC) will hold a protest at Jantar Mantar.

A university official said the protest can delay exam results, which are usually announced by the end of June every year. “The UGC has to take a call on the issue soon otherwise our calendar will be affected,” said a senior official.

Around 3,000 teachers were scheduled to evaluate papers at 13 centres.