DUTA protests over ad-hoc issue, says matter still unresolved

New Delhi: Delhi University Teachers' Association (DUTA) on Wednesday protested at ITO over the issue of ad-hoc, privatisation of universities and teachers promotion among other things.

"We are protesting against the education policies of the government. For the past few years, no appointment has taken place in DU, due to which more than 5000 ad-hoc teachers have not been given permanent posts. Teachers teaching from the pat 20-25 years are still ad-hoc," Dr Om Prakash who was present at the protest told Millennium Post. The teachers held candles in their hands and raised slogans near ITO metro station gate number 2.

"One of our demands are that the government bring an ordinance, where these 500 teachers are made permanent. Because there is no way that you make 5000 teachers permanent through an interview. This will become never-ending," added Dr Prakash.

The teachers also said that the government is trying to privatise higher education. "The new education policy is just that the colleges will be given autonomy, where any college can set a fee structure according to their own will. This way a poor student won't be able to afford education because the college can implement fee in lakhs," he said.

Meanwhile, Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has restored the position of ad-hoc teachers which has not been implemented by DU admin.

"The decision has not been implemented by the VC. Neither has the VC initiated any conversation with us. We have been protesting outside VC office for 50 days and he has not stepped near the building even once," said another ad-hoc teacher Dr Shabana. The teachers have stated that they are going to strike indefinitely.