Teachers miffed at govt’s attempt to ‘monitor’ GU classes – Times of India

The monitoring of classroom affairs follows a previous conflict of the governor with the teachers and students of the university who opposed Mukhi’s directive to terminate contractual teachers.

The teachers’ association of the university is critical of the governor’s new order, which they called an ‘expected monitoring’ from the governor’s secretariat. “In our knowledge, in the nearly 75-year history of GU, classroom monitoring was never done by the governor. It’s beyond expectation, as the vice-chancellor is responsible for monitoring academic affairs,” said Gauhati University Teachers’ Association (GUTA) general secretary, Bikash Gogoi.
As per the existing rules of GU, GUTA said the academic council headed by the VC of the university is the supreme body in academic affairs.

In a recent letter from the governor’s secretariat to the GU vice-chancellor, secretary to the governor Swapna Dutta Deka wrote to furnish a department-wise report on the weekly time table of the lecture classes against each faculty member to be duly signed by the head of the department concerned. “The report should reach the office of the undersigned on or before October 30, 2021 for onward appraisal of the chancellor,” read the letter.

Following the communication from the governor’s secretariat, GU secretary of university classes (in-charge) Partha Pratim Baruah on Wednesday sought the requisite details as Thursday is the deadline.

GU sources said that some of the department heads could not even respond to the urgent letter within the stipulated time. “There is no secrecy in routines but it is a matter of concern as the governor has intervened in an internal matter,” it added.

Details of the class routine may justify curtailment of teacher posts in some departments, though GU sources said it may not be a justified move as many teachers involved in research works and other extension activities like attending and conducting seminars, research and development works may not devote all the time in classroom teaching.

As per a previous UGC regulation, the minimum direct teaching-learning hours for assistant professors is 16 hours per week, while the same for associate professors and professors is 14 hours.

GU authority had put on hold its controversial order issued on July 2, through which services of all contractual teachers were terminated as per the governor’s directive.

Exercising the power vested upon him under the provisions of the Gauhati University Act, 1947, vice-chancellor PJ Handique ordered provisional withdrawal of the previous notification pending approval of the Academic Council (AC) and Executive Council (EC) of the university. The AC and EC approved the proposed withdrawal of the termination order.