Not to evaluate at all was never part of the boycott program

I am writing today to thank the decision making body of the DUTA for the brief respite granted to college teachers when they successfully implemented the examination boycott. For those, who are not in the know, Delhi University officially bowdlerized the examination system six years ago, when the semester system was brought in for all streams, compelling students to take examinations once in six months. Prior to this we had an annual examination mode, with year round assessment being tabulated through internal assessment, where students were evaluated on the basis of tutorials.

This was not exactly a fool proof system and internal assessment remained a flawed method as it also incorporated marks for attendance, the marking system was never standardized across colleges, and marks were invariably subject to multiple-level moderations. The internal assessment system was never reviewed or fixed for obvious glitches. Instead, it was quickly incorporated into the semester examinations as well. Evaluation work for teachers has doubled, as now they are required to evaluate answer scripts two times a year. Of course it is possible to argue that teachers are paid twelve months of the year, so they should have no problems about evaluating scripts twice a year. Our institutions are now allowed  to  function with little concern for the human condition.

The semester system has ensured that teaching cannot be done in the most productive months of November and December at New Delhi since colleges shut down teaching and move into preparatory leave mode in early November. Evaluating assignments and presentations and feeding in all this data along with student attendance is the mind numbing activity that occupies teachers at this juncture, which is followed up by evaluating a large number of examination scripts. The same process is then repeated in the even semester and in the grueling heat of May when hapless students finish with their papers, teachers are supposed to be a part of   the centralized evaluation of answer scripts.( the fact that extremely hot weather is the least productive for carrying out any kind of activity, is now documented by scientific studies) Science notwithstanding, when does a university teacher find a little space for recharging?

 The answer perhaps is that they don't need to recuperate but should soldier on in the interests of nation-building. Foe me, DUTA's call to boycott evaluation of answer scripts provided a restful interlude, in which one could take a well-deserved break from the relentless drudgery after class-room teaching that the university currently demands.

 As a union of teachers, we have been fighting battles in which our rights as teachers have been repeatedly truncated, by those in charge of previous university administrations. Pental pushed in the semester system by disregarding the considered opinion against it voiced by a majority of colleges affiliated to Delhi University and phasing it out over two years. When Dinesh Singh took office, he pulled off a mathematical coup by turning our decision making bodies such as the Academic Council and the Executive Council into a game of numbers. For the first time in the history of the university, numerical strength began to matter far more than ideas and 24 DUTA teacher representatives were viewed as miniscule, a numerical quantity to be easily quelled.

 Worse, we now battle a behemoth, much larger than all of us, that we can neither see nor address.So let us not delude ourselves into believing that we still possess the strength and power that characterized the DUTA in an earlier period or that conditions at the ground level are the same The University continues to be eroded of all value and stature and as teachers we have to protest, although the modes of struggle seem neither viable nor visible. Perhaps we need to remember that under these awful circumstances, DUTA movements  cannot operate as part of a grand plan.

 So let us participate in the struggles that can be undertaken and not begrudge them the odd photo-op in the June heat. Let us instead attend the GBM and chalk out further strategy. In any case, none of us had targeted for a zero year at Delhi University.  As teachers we are required to  factor in the lives of students who are graduating and those who are moving in and around. We would have eventually returned to the onerous task of correcting examination scripts. It is true that we don't have too much on our plate, but the coming of the monsoons raise hopes of better weather conditions to work in.