DUTA stages ‘Pen Down’ protest against stalled promotions

New Delhi, June 7 (IANS) The Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) here on Wednesday held a "Pen Down" demonstration demanding the revival of the promotion process of the teaching staff which, they said, has been on hold since 2010.

During their 'Pen Down' protest, the DUTA staff, including other teachers, gathered at the Arts Faculty of the varsity and denounced the slacking behaviour of the authorities especially the Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Tyagi.

The teachers' representative body alleged that Tyagi has given them time for a meeting for last 10 months despite several requests.

"We boycotted all evaluation, admission work for the day and sent a memorandum of our demands to the Vice Chancellor," DUTA Secretary Sandeep told IANS.

He said that the varsity has had promotions for teachers stalled since the Academic Performance Index (API) metric for promotions was recommended by the University Grants Commission in 2010.

"The API as metric was implemented in 2014, and the university said it will be effective retrospectively from the year 2008. But no promotions have been done so far," he said.

According to the API, in promoting a faculty member, factors such as number of papers published and the reputation of publication are to be considered instead of tenure which used to be the criterion earlier.

The DUTA representative said the new method leaves faculty members at a disadvantage because there is "no atmosphere for research".

"The teaching and evaluation work leaves one with hardly any time, and then, there is always rampant favouritism," he added.

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