DU sports teachers boycott Annual GBM

Fuming over the change of designation from teaching staff to non-teaching staff, sports teachers of the Delhi University refused to attend the Annual General Body Meeting (GBM) of the sports council on September 24. The GBM was supposed to set the agenda and timetable of various tournaments and games of the University for the coming session.

The change in the nomenclature of teacher’s post was the result of a University Grants Commission’s (UGC) guideline which said that the sports teachers would be called ‘director, physical education’ instead of assistance/associate professors. This alteration also reduced the age of retirement of ‘directors’ from 65 years to 62 years.

“The University in 1981 had granted recognition to the Physical Education instructors as the teachers and designated as lecturers in Physical Education. Subsequently, just like lecturers in any other discipline, National Eligibility Test was made compulsory for their recruitment, and were given promotions under the schemes applicable to all and a retirement age 65 years. “Moreover, recently, academic course in Physical Education was introduced as a part of the curriculum for undergraduate courses. However, those who taught these are now being called non-teaching staff with poorer service conditions,” said a teacher, requesting anonymity.  

 “The change in designation was a decision made by the UGC and the University. Sports council is the wrong forum to raise that issue. We repeatedly requested the teachers to attend the meeting but they did not. The GBM was very important to kick-start the selection trials for this year’s sports calendar,” said Anil Kalkal, secretary, sports council. 

The inter-university competitions are scheduled to be held in the third week of October. The selection for the national level is done on the basis of inter-college tournaments. The GBM was scheduled to discuss the dates for inter-college tournaments. 

With the cancellation of the meeting, questions have been raised about the preparedness of the university’s sports fraternity to compete at all India University tournaments. Besides, from the last few years, the performance of DU at the competitions lackluster. Last time the DU won the prestigious Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy MAKA was in 2002.  Moreover, the DU did not even send it sports report card for consideration of MAKA trophy for this year’s award.