Screening process for DU teachers altered,more to be interviewed

With the changes,the EC will now interview more candidates for teaching posts in colleges as well as the university departments. “If candidates are more,those who score 75 or above on the academic performance index (API) will be called for interviews for department posts. For college teaching vacancies,the score has been fixed at 60,” Aditya Narayan Misra,one of the dissenting members,said.

Earlier,30 candidates could be called for interviews for a post vacant in a department and 50 for a vacant teaching post in a college.

In cases where the number of applicants is less,the earlier format will apply,Misra said.

In the API,marks are allotted on the candidate’s performance in graduation,post-graduation,teaching experience and publications,among other things.

Misra also expressed his dissent regarding the marks that candidates needed to score. “I pleaded that it should be lowered to 55 marks. Scores vary not just from one university to another,but even among departments. The same holds true for publications by candidates,” Misra said.

Abha Dev Habib,another dissenting member who teaches Physics at Miranda House,said the screening criteria did not take into consideration the difference in the educational backgrounds or the quality of work.

“The system fails to evaluate the quality of their work. It also does not take into account socio-economic conditions because of which candidates are not able to pursue research work. Such candidates will be not even get a chance to appear before selection committees,” Habib said.

The issue of implementation of a 200-point reservation roster also came up for discussion at the EC meeting.

On September 26,DU Teachers’ Association President Nandita Narain had written to the Minister of Human Resource Development alleging that DU’s “decision to implement the 200-point post-based roster for teaching positions is at variance with the clear directives issued by the UGC,MHRD and Departement of Personnel and Training (DOPT).”

Narain’s letter stated,“The vice-chancellor has also unilaterally decided that the cut-off date for applicability of the 200-Point Roster will be September 3,2013,(the date on which DU issued the recent notification to colleges and departments),even though the EC had adopted the 200-point roster for SC/ST/OBC in March 2007,and the department-wise post-based roster for SC/ST in 1999.”