The Congress joined the teachers’ agitation as some of its leaders including Deependra Singh Hooda, a Parliamentarian from Haryana, Girija Vyas, a former Cabinet Minister and Raghuvansh Prasad Singh of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) attended the protest gathering on Tuesday.
Thousands of teachers on Tuesday carried out a protest march “Satyagrah” from the University Grant Commission’s office to Jantar Mantar against the UGC criteria to ascertain their academic performance. They demanded “written assurance” from the ministry over workload norms. Chief whip of Congress, Hooda and RJD’s old guard, Singh conveyed their solidarity with the teachers. “The Central government is targeting Universities on a daily basis. The Congress has always lent its support to the concerns of teachers,” said Hooda.
“In Haryana, before the BJP government, the party addressed the casual approach to permanent faculty appointment and DU should follow the same provisions,” he added.
RJD leader Singh said: “It is unfortunate that teachers have to come out to protest everyday, the Human Resource Development Minister and the ministry should resolve the problem.”
Teachers’ associations of Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) and IGNOU also joined the agitation. Teachers are protesting against the UGC’s notice which has increased ‘direct teaching’ to 24 hours per week. For associate professors, it went up from 14 to 22 hours per week. The teachers are also protesting against the students’ greater say in the making of the Annual Performance Index (API)
DU teachers have already boycotted the evaluation process in the university. The teachers initially called for a four-day boycott beginning from May 24, which was further extended till Monday but it was decided in a General Body meeting of the DUTA that the boycott would continue as the deliration between teachers and a UGC official failed.