PUTA objects to Teacher’s Day holiday

The circular was discussed in the meeting of PUTA executive held today. The association not only questioned the University’s decision to declare Teachers’ Day on September 5 a non-working day but also demanded that no rescheduling be done without the consent of the concerned faculty and also without taking PUTA leadership into confidence.

PUTA had also demanded an auditing of loss of academic days due to sudden change in the academic schedule. “When the University is already beleaguered with problems of delay in results and consequently a delay in the regular teaching,PUTA leadership wonders what prompts the University administration to declare working days as holidays,” added Khalid.

PUTA president Akshaya Kumar said,“It seems in the University there is no sanctity attached to Teachers’ Day. Such sudden changes in teaching and examination schedules have become frequent that causes lot of inconvenience to the public at large,including the teaching and non-teaching staff on the campus.”

Further adding to it,Prof Manjit Singh said that schedules are changed arbitrarily at the eleventh hour. Earlier,for no such pressing reason,August 16 was declared as a holiday. A holiday immediately after the celebrations of Independence Day is unheard of in the Universities. Each year,after lot of deliberations,academic calendar is drawn,but is changed as per the convenience or whims of the administration.”

Though the PUTA might be complaining about teaching schedules getting upset,it was also said that there is more reason for these objections. PUTA had planned a function to felicitate new faculty members as well as those who have retired recently on September 5. But due to arbitrary re-scheduling,the function now stands shelved.