more-in The Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) celebrated its golden jubliee on Monday with a day-long conference remembering and mapping the history of its struggles and the teachers’ movement in the country. The chief guest at the function was O. P. Kohli, the Governor of Gujarat who served as DUTA president from 1973-1975 and 1977-1979. In his inaugural address, Mr. Kohli wondered how it was possible to talk about quality of education when “permanent appointments and promotions are not taking place and teachers do not get pension”. He said that universities, especially Delhi University, has been the ground for a series of experiments without any thought about whether this was helping attain excellence. He felt that the implementation of the semester system, the four-year undergraduate programme and the choice-based credit system, had led to erosion of standards and quality at DU. Several former presidents of DUTA were felicitated during the session and a tribute was paid to Kumaresh Chakravarty, former association president (1971 – 1973), who passed away earlier this year. Former presidents such as Zahoor Siddiqui, M.M.P. Singh, N. K. Kakkar, Shriram Oberoi, Shaswati Mazumdar, Amar Deo Sharma, Aditya Narain Misra, Nandita Narain recounted the struggles launched by the association through its history. They commemorated the journey of DUTA from a time when teachers had neither promotions nor any other benefits, all of which were achieved through fiercely fought struggles. They lamented that today, once again, universities are facing a crisis with policy decisions aimed towards commercialisation of education, withdrawal of government funding and increased government interference. Several teacher-activists called for the need to make DUTA a vibrant body by ensuring inclusive participation of all sections and the immediacy of resolving long pending issues of teachers such as appointments, promotions and resolution of pension issues The teachers also discussed the government’s alleged plan of dismantling public funded higher education with a shift from grants to loans through the HEFA — the tripartite agreement forced upon universities that will force them to raise student fees and also generate 30% of their own resources.

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