Delhi University’s English teachers have raised concerns over the loss of jobs/workload with changes to be brought in by the four-year undergraduate programme structure as the next academic session approaches.
They have also pointed out that English has been removed as a Core Language course in the BA Programme and BCom programme courses. Around 100 teachers are "slated" to lose their jobs following the removal of English as an AEC under the UGCF, claims teacher.
Earlier this year, more than 400 English teachers had also petitioned the Vice-Chancellor asking that English remain in the Ability Enhancement Courses (AEC) pool and as a Core Language course in the BA and BCom programme courses. “I have given prime years of my life to the university and now I am living in the constant fear of losing my job,” says a Delhi University teacher, summing up the plight of hundreds of English teachers who are fearing job loss due to the implementation of Undergraduate Curriculum Framework (UGCF) from the 2022-23 academic session.
The Delhi University's Executive Council in February approved UGCF-2022 formulated in accordance with the National Education Policy.
Several teachers opposed the proposed structure of the UGCF, saying that the Ability Enhancement Courses (AEC) are offered only in the languages included in the eighth schedule of the Constitution and that does not include English.
They also said the UGCF singles out the English department in particular for a massive reduction, almost in the range of 30 to 40 per cent, of its existing workload.
"I have been teaching in the Department of English at a DU college since 2010 on an ad hoc basis. Since it is a science college, our workload is mainly dependent on the AEC paper," said the English teacher who did not wish to be named. "After having worked sincerely for 12 years, I am now living under the constant threat of losing my job. What will be done for people like me who have given their prime years to the University in the hope of being permanent one day?" the teacher added.
As the university is set to reopen soon, teachers have argued that there is a clear indication that the workload of the English department across colleges will get reduced by at least one-third.
Rudrashish Chakraborty, professor at Kirori Mal College, said: "In my college, there is a loss of 60 lectures in the next semester; in Hansraj College, it is 50, in Ramjas, it's almost 60+, and so is the story in colleges across the university."The situation will be worse for teachers working in colleges which do not offer English (hons) or BA progamme like Keshav Mahavidyalaya, GGS College of Commerce, Institute of Home Economics (IHE), Lady Irwin College, Bhaskaracharya, and Rajguru College of Applied Sciences, believes Chakraborty.
"Their entire workload used to be primarily of AEC which is gone now: rendering the permanent teachers almost redundant, forget the ad hoc ones.
This assault on workload has been made systematically to make sure that ad hoc teachers working in the English department lose their jobs after teaching for the last eight-nine years in the university in the hope of getting absorbed," alleged Chakraborty.
A member of DU Academic Council, Mithuraaj Dhusiya, said that the English departments across DU colleges are staring at mass level displacements of existing ad hoc and guest teachers.