Science teachers in various colleges of Delhi University (DU) have been facing major problems regarding their workload recently as colleges haven’t hired new teachers
for the freshly-introduced compulsory course for first year — Environmental Studies. While the course was introduced this year itself, colleges assigned the subject to teachers of life Sciences rather than appointing new teachers as per a notice circulated by the university. A source said that not one or two but several colleges across all campuses were facing problems where teachers of life Sciences were working double shifts per week to cover the syllabus.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) had recently added Environmental Studies (EVS) as a compulsory course for all undergrad students of the current academic session in DU. However, the students could take up the course either in the first or second semester. University officials said that this course was a qualifying course and would be evaluated out of 100 marks. The evaluation according one of the deputy deans in the university would be done by the respective colleges and not the university.
Thus, with the importance that the course holds, the university had said that colleges could hire teachers for the subject based on the strength of students. Since the course is currently only in English, students of Hindi were exempted from it, said a university official.
However, many colleges have not hired these teachers. A source from Kirori Mal College said that so far separate teachers for the course were not allotted and teachers of life sciences were teaching the course. “It is a very haphazard way of teaching because the teachers have immense workload and the syllabus is being covered very slowly. Since this is a qualifying subject, it should be taken up seriously by colleges but unfortunately it is being taken very lightly and teachers along with students are suffering,” said the source. Along with Kirori Mal College, even other colleges across the campuses of DU are facing this problem because principals have not hired new teachers. “The authorities are aware of this issue but nothing is being done,” said an official from a college in North Campus.