Delhi University English teachers fear job loss under new academic framework
Delhi University teachers have expressed that they fear losing their job due to the implementation of Undergraduate Curriculum Framework (UGCF) from the 2022-23 academic session.“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 DU teacher, summing up the plight of hundreds of English teachers who are fearing job loss.
The Delhi University’s Executive Council in February approved UGCF-2022 formulated in accordance with the National Education Policy (NEP 2020). 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.
According to them, the UGCF singles out the English department in particular for a massive reduction, almost in the range of 30-40 %, 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 an English teacher.
Around 100 teachers are ‘slated’ to lose their jobs following the removal of English as an AEC under the UGCF, claims another teacher. 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 be reduced by at least one-third.
“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 more than 60, and so is the story in colleges across the university,” Rudrashish Chakraborty, professor at Kirori Mal College, said.
In March this year, more than 400 English teachers of Delhi University had written to Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh, saying the workload of their department will be ‘massively reduced’ due to the implementation of the UGCF from the 2022-23 academic session and would lead to a loss of livelihoods.
With inputs from PTI.
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