Let us Unite to Reclaim DUTA for Teachers and Defend Public Higher Education

The DTF today announced its panel of candidates for the Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) elections scheduled for 4th September 2025. Leading the DTF team is Rajib Ray for President, alongside a dedicated team for the DUTA Executive Committee: Biswajit Mohanty, Dinesh Kataria, V.S. Dixit and Yasha Yadav.

The DTF is making an effort to bring together all teachers’ organisations and activists, who are concerned about the unwillingness of the pro-government NDTF leadership of the DUTA to confront the devastating changes in educational structures, content, and teachers’ service and working conditions. A united front with Rajib Ray as the candidate is the need of the hour.

Teachers in Delhi University are currently threatened by the policy directions of the NEP and its rolling out through various Regulations, Guidelines and SOPs. DUTA’s historic strength lay in its ability to unite teachers for collective struggles at the university and all-India levels through informed critiques of policies that compromise educational quality, public character, and teachers’ service and working conditions, often gaining public support to compel government policy reversals.

For several years, that ability has been severely compromised. The DUTA has been reduced to a pocket organisation serving the DU administration and the Union government, neglecting its mandate to fight for teachers’ rights and academic integrity. It cannot displease the authorities, acting instead as a lower-order power centre over teachers, not their collective instrument for struggle, gradually turning them voiceless and vulnerable. Continue reading →