DU, teachers lock horns over open learning

While teachers accuse DU of bending financial rules, varsity complains of absenteeism among the teachers

The Delhi University administration and its teachers’ association on Tuesday locked horns on once again — with the teachers alleging violation of rules and the university authorities slamming teachers for absenteeism.

The School of Open Learning (SOL) came under attack from the Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) for allegedly violating the ordinances and financial rules of the university, especially with regard to personal contact programmes (PCP).

According to DUTA, university ordinances stipulate that all academic decisions should be taken by the staff council. The governing body of SOL has taken over control of the staff council’s academic powers, the DUTA alleged.

Raising concerns about expenditure incurred by SOL on the services provided to students, DUTA president Nandita Narain said, “There is no value addition in running the programme as compared to the previous years. Ironically, the SMS being sent to students says PCP is not compulsory. Then why this huge expenditure?”

“All admission related work is transferred to IDBI Bank without consulting the Staff Council Committee on Admission and Students’ Welfare. This has resulted in more than Rs 50 lakh of avoidable expenditure since the bank is paid Rs 15 per student and employees have to be sent to bank branches for coordination,” Harish Khanna, DUTA secretary and AAP MLA from Timarpur constituency, said.
The university hit back, alleging “teacher absenteeism”.

“The staff council is a recommendatory body. We have saved nearly Rs 5 crore by making the admit card process online. We decided to decentralise the admission process and provide forms at various bank branches. Now, a student does not have to come all the way to SOL to seek admission. All these measures were implemented in order to make the process more student-friendly,” C S Dubey, SOL chairperson, said.
Dubey also stated that while PCP classes was losing relevance, more students were attending the classes now.

“Classes have not been reduced. With improved infrastructure support, more students can attend the classes. This is why we increased study centres from 16 to 30. The road ahead is through video and audio lectures and resource material being made available to students online.
We have been urging teachers to work on this,” Dubey said.

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“If you walk down the corridors, you will hardly find teachers taking classes. In a meeting held with the teachers, I was told that they will come up with study material — 5,000 words in 150 hours — and audio learning material in 40 hours. But nothing has been done by them till now,” he said.

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