Almost a month ago, Bihar governor Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain made five hours per day of classes compulsory for faculty members of government-funded universities and colleges. The diktat issued by the governor’s secretariat to 18 state universities and their affiliated colleges is in contrast to the University Grants Commission (UGC) norms. To oppose the governor’s directive, the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations of Bihar (FUTAB) launched a formal protest against the Bihar Governor’s alleging contravention to UGC’s 2018 norms.
The recent order is being seen as the chancellor’s interference in the academic affairs and functioning of higher educational institutions, whose prior commitments are limited to appointing vice chancellors, institutional oversight, presiding over convocations, statute and policy approval, etc.
“All faculty members, in full-time employment at the universities/the colleges, have to mandatorily attend classes for a minimum of five hours per day, subject to not less than 40 hours of workload in a week during the semester weeks,” said the order issued by Kalpana Srivastava, officer on special duty (OSD) in the governor’s secretariat, with the chancellor’s approval.
As per the UGC regulations for maintenance of standards in higher education, assistant professors have to allot 16 hours per week to direct teaching-learning activities, while associate professors and professors are required to devote at least 14 hours a week.
To protest the new mandate, Aditya Narayan Mishra, former president of Delhi University Teachers Association, has written to the governor to roll back the modifications in line with the UGC guidelines. He contended that the UGC norms require faculty to stay present on the campus for at least 5 hours per day, instead of devoting all their time to teaching. The order issued by the OSD is based on a “mechanical and narrow approach to teaching-learning in universities and colleges”, he said, according to a media outlet.
The letter added that the difference between ‘stay hours’ and ‘teaching hours’ had already been clarified by the Ministry in the Rajya Sabha and through official press releases in 2016. “The position is clear: a teacher stays for five hours, but teaches for the specific hours allotted by rank,” the letter stated.
Latest>>West Bengal Raises Age Limit For Government Jobs by 5 Years
