Delhi University’s admission process for all its undergraduate courses commenced on Thursday with the Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) boycotting the admission process protesting against the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) recent notification that suggested changes in the system of Academic Performance Indicators (API) that determines the promotion of teachers.
The colleges have, however, roped in non-teaching staff to ensure a smooth admission process for students seeking admission into various courses in the 63 colleges of Delhi University. Meanwhile, the DUTA has said that their call for “boycott” of the admissions process by teachers has been successful in the first two days.
Dr Jaswinder Singh, principal of SGBT Khalsa College, told The Sunday Guardian, “Even as the teachers are boycotting the admission process, I and principals in other colleges, are ensuring that students do not face any problems with admissions. For this, we are seeking help from the non-teaching staff to smoothly conduct the admission process.”
There was a similar situation in 2010 when teachers were protesting against the semester system and the admission process was “handled” by non-teaching staff leading to “over admission” in several colleges. Asked about a repetition of a similar situation, Dr Singh said, “Such a situation can happen even if teachers handle things. This depends on the cut-off and has nothing to do with non-teaching staff. Non-teaching staff know the admission procedures well, but if any student faces any problem with admissions at any stage, they can always reach Prof. J.P. Khurana, in-charge of admissions of Delhi University.”
On the contrary, Dr V.S. Dixit, Member, Academic Council, DU said, “There is always a possibility of over admitting students if teachers do not participate in the admission process, but I am sure the non-teaching staff are proficient enough to avoid such a situation.” Dr Rajendra Prasad, principal of Ramjas College, DU, said that the boycotting of the admission process by the teachers has affected the admission process somewhat, but the help by non-teaching staff has come as a relief for colleges.
Nandita Narain, president of DUTA, told The Sunday Guardian that DUTA would continue boycotting admissions “till the University reaches us with a positive solution”. “We have been agitating against ad hocism and promotion issues since the past eight years, but we had to take this extreme step now in order to save the quality of teachers in Delhi University. We will be boycotting both the admission process as well as the evaluation of the first and second year answer scripts till the university or the Vice Chancellor communicates with us. The teachers are already in the process of evaluating the final year answer scripts.” On the issue of non-teaching staff handling the admission process, Narain said, “There is no problem with that, the non-teaching staff also comprises of educated and intelligent class I and class II employees who can handle admissions.”
Students on the first two days of admissions reportedly faced problems with the online fee payment portal as many students complained about the admissions website running slowly. Prof Yogesh Tyagi, Delhi University Vice Chancellor, told The Sunday Guardian, “The admissions are going on smoothly and so far, there have not been any issue. The colleges are taking care to ensure that students do not face problems with admissions.”
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