Choice Based Credit System Adding to Distress in DU: DUTA

New Delhi, June 11, 2015: Students and teachers of Delhi University on Tuesday held a rally to protest the implementation of the Choice Based Credit System (CBCS), saying it was adding to their distress.

The rally at protest site Jantar Mantar in central Delhi was organised by the Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) to remind the human resource development (HRD) ministry of the "deteriorating situation" at the university.

"While the issues of students and teachers continue to pile up and inflict daily harassment on them, another round of 'reform', the CBCS, is being bulldozed," the DUTA said in a statement.

It said the system was being implemented at the university with even "less preparedness than the discredited FYUP (four-year undergraduate programme)".

The government wants to implement CBCS in this academic session with an aim to facilitate student mobility across institutions.

The DUTA said the university administration disallowed any discussion in the Academic Council and the Executive Council meetings held on January 21 and May 28 on an issue which was to impact the lives of over 60,000 students.

"The only argument given by the administration in the AC and the EC meetings was that this has to be put in place from session 2015-16 as the UGC and the HRD ministry have directed universities to do so," it said.

The association said lakhs of students were applying for admissions to DU without having any clarity about courses, syllabi and examination scheme.

"Our recent experience with rushed and top-down 'reforms', be it semester system at the undergraduate level or FYUP, is that they have damaged teaching-learning processes and the worst victims of these experiments have been students," the DUTA said.

The DUTA's protest programme was supported by the All India Students' Association (AISA), All India Students Federation (AISF), All India Democratic Students' Organisation (AIDSO), and Krantikari Yuva Sangathan (KYS) among others.

Student leaders and teachers spoke about the urgent need for a pan-India movement against such "half-baked reforms" and more particularly in defence of public funded institutions of higher education.

The DUTA office-bearers also met newly-appointed education secretary Vinay Sheel Oberoi and submitted to him a memorandum on CBCS and other pending issues in the university.

The DUTA has also written to President Pranab Mukherjee, who is the Visitor, reminding him about the action pending against DU Vice Chancellor Dinesh Singh even after he was issued a show cause notice by the HRD ministry.

"The DUTA has reminded the Visitor of the distress in which the vice chancellor has pushed Delhi University through his misgovernance," the teachers' association said.

"The DUTA has apprised the Visitor of the various issues of teachers, including denial of pension and promotions, violation of reservation policy, selection committees in variance with the UGC regulations, and demanded to know why the VC was being allowed to continue to inflict destruction on the university," it said.

IANS