DTF members press for effective action by DUTA on centralised evaluation
Amar Deo Sharma, Sheo Dutt, Renu Bala, Giriraj Bairwa, Rudrashish Chakravorty, Abha Dev Habib, Vijaya Venkataraman and Rajib Ray have demanded another meeting of the DUTA Executive on the chaos in the university examinations. The manner in which evaluation is being carried out by threatening teachers to carry out evaluation of a huge number of answer scripts per day, huddled together at a few centres, completely unmindful of quality, is a matter of concern. Appointment of teachers who have not taught a particular paper as its examiners and insistence that each answer script be evaluated in less time than is required to read through the answers are scandalous. The DUTA President too has shown little concern for the undermining of quality and fairness in evaluation. Unable to defend his unwillingness to act against the University administration, he has resorted to a facile action programme.
The text of their letter to the DUTA President is as follows:
It is evident after the meeting of the DUTA Executive with the Director, South Campus on 29 April 2009 that the University Administration stubbornly refuses to set right the chaos in the evaluation process. It is a matter of shame that the University Administration accepts our concerns over the devaluing of evaluation and yet does not want to retract from the present centralized evaluation system.
We wish to point out that merely requisitioning an AC meeting is not an effective and useful course of action on the part of the DUTA leadership. It would be paying lip service to the issue.
We request you to urgently convene a meeting of the DUTA Executive to decide an effective course of participative action against the University administration and to highlight the issues in the media.
It should be recalled that a meeting of the DUTA Executive was held on 29 April 2009 following such a requisition.
The DUTA President Mr Aditya Narayan Misra had conducted the meeting in an undemocratic and arbitrary manner after having refused to act on the issue for two weeks till he was forced to convene a requisitioned meeting. Secondly, he wrongly summarized the proceedings as “divided opinion on the matter” though there was complete unanimity on the issue among members of the DUTA Executive. Lastly, he closed the meeting suddenly on the pretext of meeting the Vice-Chancellor without adopting a resolution on the matter and literally ran away from the scene. The members, aghast and enraged, drafted a resolution condemning the undemocratic behaviour of the DUTA President which was signed by the DTF and some INTEC members present at that time. The resolution also called for participation in the evaluation process only when the present chaos is resolved and the teachers are given the option to evaluate scripts at the place of their choice, ie, either the centres or their residence.
Draft Resolution of Members in the DUTA Meeting of 29.04.2009
We, the undersigned, unanimously resolve to condemn the undemocratic, intolerant and arbitrary attitude of the DUTA President in the meeting of the DUTA Executive on 29th April, 2009. Instead of summarizing the collective and unanimous opinion of the members emerging in the meeting, Mr Aditya Narayan Misra, the DUTA President, arbitrarily concluded the meeting suggesting that “there is a divided opinion on the matter” of central evaluation of examination. The undersigned members of DUTA Executive, Academic Council and Executive Council strongly condemn the unilateral and undemocratic behaviour of the DUTA Executive. The DUTA Executive meeting decided the following:
1. Teachers should refrain from centralised evaluation if the present chaos exists.
2. A requisitioned meeting of the AC is to be convened to re-examine the report of Examination reform.
3. Teachers should participate in the evaluation process only if the earlier system exists, ie, the flexibility remains to teachers to check scripts at the venue of their choice.
Signed by:
Rudrashish Chakraborty, Giriraj Bairwa, Abha Dev Habib, Vijaya Venkatraman, Amar Deo Sharma, Rajib Ray, Sheo Dutt, Ashwini Shankar, Sanjay Verma and R. S. Dahiya.
It is unfortunate that though the DUTA President used the excuse of meeting the Vice-Chancellor to stall the Executive meeting, the VC Prof Deepak Pental refused to meet the DUTA delegation and deputed the Director, South Campus, Prof Dinesh Singh, to do the formality. Prof Singh refused to promise anything on the matter after sharing the concerns expressed by DUTA Executive members and merely stated that he would convey the message of the DUTA delegation to the Vice-Chancellor.
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the attempt to reform the evaluation process in delhi uniersity has been made in such an undemocratic and hamhanded manner that it is doomed to fail.
other than the just concerns raised about centralised checking in illequipped exam centres and techers being forced to make judgement of sheets in 15 mins (frankly i don’t see a problem in this… even earlier i am sure the mad rush to make a quick buck caused many evaluators to spend much less time on each script… now at least the non-seriousness is being legalised); there are other kinds of problems.
many evaluators are being forced to travel right across the city each day to particiapte in corrections.
secondly, the summons for evaluations are being made in an emergency manner, “please come tomorrow to such and such place”. the evaluation branch is treating teachers like employees in a private company who are kept on a 24 hours leash.
i wish to say that teachers of the university are considered to be employees in a vacation department and are therefore, entitled to only 12 earned eaves per anum unlike other government employees who are entitled to 30. many teachers take on research projects, or even plan family events during vacations because they can’t take leave at other times in the year. so summoning someone at short notice is unethical. if the university wants to run evaluations in this manner let it grant teachers 30 earned leaves in a year.
or else the dates for evaluation for each teacher should be fixed… the teachers should be told to give 15-20 days of evaluation time each year and they can then make themselves available for a certain period during the summer break.
if the university administration seriously wishes to reform the evaluation process it needs to stop treating teachers as convicts!
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