Amidst reports of mass displacement in Hindi Dept, Satyawati College (Evening), the leaders of the Alliance – Democratic United Teachers’ Association write to the Vice Chancellor against mass scale displacements of working ad-hoc teachers
Reports of en-masse displacement in the Department of Hindi, Satyawati College (Evening) has shocked all teachers. While the Selection Committee was held from 1.9.2023-5.9.2023 and then from 12.9.2023-16.9.2023, the results are not yet announced on the college website. The fact that results have not been displayed on the website (as is the current norm) compels us to believe in the reports that close to 70-80% serving teachers have been displaced including teachers serving for as long 20 years.
Any injustice of this kind, on the basis of 4–6-minutes interviews, which totally disregards the contribution and continuous work of a serving teacher, is completely unacceptable.
Displacement of teachers is not only an attack on the livelihood of thousands of teachers but also shows a callous disregard of the University administration towards their contribution to these institutions with their tireless work. It also has deleterious academic consequences. The tragic incident wherein Samarveer Singh, a young talented teacher, was forced to take his life after being thrown out of his job in the Department of Philosophy, Hindu College highlights the pain of many young teachers who have unjustly lost their jobs. This unfair loss has happened at a time when these teachers were hoping for what is arguably a well-deserved permanent job after years of serving in ad-hoc and temporary positions.
A teacher is created in the class-room through years of experience. It is unfortunate that trained teachers are often being replaced by those who do not have a day’s teaching experience! Students in several colleges have protested against the displacement of their teachers. These displacements will adversely impact the teaching-learning environment in colleges. It is surely unfortunate that even students’ concerns are not being taken seriously.
Also, in many places there are very serious allegations of politically motivated nepotism and an unfair interview process that often borders on the farcical. Candidates have been humiliated during the interview process, mocked and have been asked questions which have no relevance to their academic discipline. For example, in an interview for English, candidates were asked the meaning of a Sanskrit shloka! Department professors have been side-lined and the opinion of teachers-in-charge is ignored. The same set of experts is being sent repeatedly to various Selection Committees, and ‘lists’ of candidates to be selected circulated beforehand, raising questions about the fairness and credibility of the entire process. In drawing the lists of Experts and VC Nominees, Professors including Heads of Department have been largely excluded.
To add to the difficulties of those displaced, ad-hoc appointments are not being made against regular vacancies, ostensibly on the basis of verbal instructions by the University. This is totally unacceptable. While the attempt of the institution should be to recruit teachers on permanent basis against vacancies, ad-hoc appointments should be allowed against leave vacancies, retirements or vacancies which are against variable workload. In effect, we are looking at a scenario where guest appointments against full-time posts have become the norm. This is not acceptable as it is neither in the favour of the institution nor of teachers. While full-time teachers remain available to students and contribute to the college through their work on committees and student societies, guest faculty are paid for a fixed number of lectures and are not necessarily available to students outside the classroom because of the nature of their appointment.
The University has been conducting interviews in colleges, finally, after almost 10 years. Though vacancies have been advertised in the past, interviews were not held for one reason or another and the number of ad-hoc teachers in the university was steadily increasing. Teachers have been demanding the absorption of ad-hoc teachers through a one-time UGC Regulation and were hoping that in the current round of interviews justice would finally be done and all those teaching against the advertised positions would be absorbed. It was hoped that those who had tirelessly served the institutions and had worked in the best interest of students against all odds would be justly made permanent.
We appeal to the Vice Chancellor for his urgent intervention in the case of Satyawati College – Evening. If true, this grave matter requires a strict, urgent, time-bound and impartial inquiry, pending which the newly appointed OSD should be sent back to his parent college.
As the academic and administrative head of the University of Delhi, it is the responsibility of the Vice Chancellor to ensure that no more displacement happens in colleges and departments and justice is done to ad-hoc and temporary teachers. Not doing so will surely lead to more unrest in the University which will disrupt the teaching-learning process.
We submit that all displaced teachers must be reabsorbed in open vacancies in department and colleges of the University.
The statement was released by Nandita Narain, President, Democratic Teachers’ Front, Aditya Narayan Misra, National Convenor, AADTA, Pankaj Garg, Chairman, INTEC, Sachin N., Co-ordinator, Common Teachers’ Forum, Uma, Co-convenor, Delhi Teachers’ Initiative, Shashi Shekhar Singh, Samajwadi Shikshak Manch, Dinesh Varshney, Janwadi Shikshak Manch, Shyam Kumar, ITF-SJ (Independent Teachers’ Front for Social Justice), Suraj Yadav, DU Forum for Social Justice, Vishal Pandey, General Secretary, Voice of DU Adhoc, Seema Das, Member, Executive Council, Maya John, Member, Academic Council and President, Staff Association, JMC, Sanoj Kumar, Member, Academic Council, Nawal Kishore, Department of Political Science, Rajdhani College, and Ratan Lal, Department of History, Hindu College.
