In the latest in a spate of student and teachers’ movements protesting the government’s interference in universities and spaces of higher education, teachers from Delhi University are up in arms against the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Protesting unrealistic, burdensome workload regulations and an absurd ‘points’ system for assessing calibre, teachers from the university have taken to boycotting evaluations and admissions.
While students were on vacation, in their latest Gazette notification, the UGC quietly slipped in new workload regulations that would have been impossible for the teachers to meet. In addition to the new regulations, they refused to roll back the API-PBA system which awards ‘points’ for various achievements, which include publishing papers in journals the UGC ‘recognises’, student feedback and number of lecture hours. These points are crucial; they determine promotions.
As most teachers will tell you, the unrealistic standards set by the UGC has meant that teachers haven’t received promotions in at least eight years.
In the face of intense protest, they repealed the new workload regulations, but have refused to address the API-PBA system. As a result, teachers are boycotting evaluations and admissions have come to a standstill.
While it is true that the UGC’s demands of teachers are absurd and it is impossible to numerically evaluate skill and capability, it is also true that the futures of thousands of students are at stake. Under these circumstances, are their protests justified?
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