Students complain of flaws in pedagogy
After 200 students of MA English in the Delhi University complained against three of their teachers for their “dismal” teaching skills, the head of department (HoD) of the English Department in the university, Sumanyu Satpathy has gone into hiding. While the HoD refuses to interact with anyone, he has also not hinted any form of action being taken on the issue. The complaint letter has been signed by a total of 202 students who have alleged that the teaching methods of these teachers and comments made by them in class “imply to sexism, racism, anti-Muslim behaviour and homophobia”. They have also alleged that the teachers are finishing essential modules in two days and making statements saying that they can do what they want as no one will question them.
Satpathy’s behaviour over this controversial issue was downright dismissive and he refused to talk about the action that he proposed to take against the teachers named by the students. However, sources said that a meeting regarding the same was supposed to be held on Wednesday, although no confirmation on it could be received.
Students of MA English on Tuesday wrote a letter to the V-C about the appalling way of teaching by the teachers concerned. The letter titled “complaint letter against the dismal teaching skills of the newly appointed teachers for MA English Precious and Final years in DU.” Carried details about teaching methodologies of Dr Anju Gurawa, Pooja Negi and Dr Yogesh Kumar Dubey. The students alleged that while Gurawa misses lectures and then fails to inform, her foundation in literary movements in English literature is also shaky. “She conflates topics, lacks clarity and fails to explain topics in an intelligible manner in class,” read the letter.
The major complaint against Gurawa was her racist style of teaching. “Dr Gurawa specifically asked the girls in the MA Previous class to stand up and ask questions so that they can lose two calories in this manner. She chose to explain racism to her MA Precious class by making a comparatively darker complexioned boy stand up. In one of her IA sessions, she kept on insisting to classify a student’s caste — if it belonged to the upper or lower strata,” students complained.
Negi was however levied with serious allegations. Students said that Negi made unsavory comments regarding Muslims in class. “She claimed that Muslims brought homosexuality to India and taught Indians how to cheat and gamble. She failed to substantiate her claims with any proof despite repeated enquiries by the students about the source of the said comment,” alleged over 200 students.
Dubey, too, was dedicated a paragraph full of complaints. Students said that Dubey failed to deal with his texts in a scholarly manner. The letter read, “Not only did he finish an important text in only two lectures, but he also did not discuss the important themes and techniques of the play. These classes would lay down the foundation for our research topics and it would be highly unfortunate if despite post graduate degree students remain unaware of the literary techniques used by even canonical writers.”
The students have sent copies of the letter to the Visitor of the DU, who is the President of India, the Vice Chancellor and the Registrar. They have also registered an online complaint with the President’s Secretariat Helpline and the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).