The general body meeting of Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) on Wednesday decided to continue with the evaluation boycott. Evaluation rooms in colleges have been locked since May 9 to protest against Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and University Grants Commission (UGC). MHRD and UGC changed rules on the autonomous scheme and reservation for SC/ST/OBCs. Since then, DUTA has staged many protests. DUTA demands also include the non-displacement and regularisation of the ad-hoc or temporary teachers. However, some teachers believe that the ad-hoc teachers might be denied salaries due to the boycott.
While 27 college staff associations as well as the Left-backed Democratic Teachers’ Front (DTF), opposed this decision, the Right-leaning organizations¬†insisted on continuing the boycott.The resolution of left backed DTF was defeated during a vote and the resolution to continue the boycott won by 156 to 106.
“Students to suffer?”
Generally DU starts declaring results for all three years towards the end of June. The answers sheets are evaluated by mid-June and the examination department processes results. But this year, there will be a delay in declaration of results due to the boycott.
The third-year students will be majorly affected as most of them seek admission in post-graduate courses in India or abroad and to complete the admission process, undergraduate marksheets¬†are necessary. Some colleges realise that the protest should not be continued at the stake of the future of third-year students. Therefore, they¬†might disregard the boycott.¬†A teacher from Ramjas College said,“We have been insisting that the boycott cannot be a sustained way of protesting, as it involves the future of third-year students”.¬†