The adamant attitude of the teachers and the DAV college management has reduced the concept of evening classes to a farce. The college management is insisting that the teachers should take the evening classes also but the DAV college teachers’ association is steadfastly refusing to cooperate on the issue.
In a landmark judgment , the Uttarakhand High Court while hearing a petition of Daulat Ram Semwal had implemented a maximum limit in the admissions in the colleges of the State. The admission process in the colleges like DAV was affected due to the court order as these colleges were forced to admit limited number of students.
The left out students raised a huge hue and cry on restricted admissions on which the State Government devised the evening classes’ concept to accommodate the left-out students. Interestingly, the evening classes in DAV College which is the biggest college of State have not started even almost four months after the State Government on August 29 had directed the colleges to start these classes.
When contacted, the Principal of the DAV College, Devendra Bhasin, told ‘The Pioneer’ that the teachers of the college have refused to cooperate in the process of admission and teaching of evening classes. He said that he had written a letter to the DAV college teacher’s association seeking their support but the association has categorically ruled out their cooperation.
On Friday the college principal issued an open letter to the teachers’ association asking them to reconsider their decision for the benefit of the college and the students. Bhasin said that he is trying to break the deadlock on the issue and the college has released the list of 1760 candidates for the evening classes.The president of the DAV college teachers’ association, S P Mittal, defended the non-cooperation of the teachers on the issue of the evening classes. He told ‘The Pioneer’ that the Government Order (GO) of October 29 clearly says that the serving teachers can be drawn to teach the evening classes only after they complete 5 hours of regular teaching. He said that teachers of the college are already overworked and the college administration should hire unemployed NET and SlET qualified candidates as other colleges.
It is worth mentioning here that the State Government had recruited teachers on contractual basis for teaching in the evening classes but the DAV management stonewalled the move to appoint these contractual teachers in the college on the plea that it solely reserves the right to appoint teachers. The students on the other hand are suffering due to the deadlock between the teachers and the college administration and their fears of a zero session in the evening classes is genuine as the HC has clearly stated that teaching of 180 days in an academic year is mandatory.