By Abu Zafar, India Tomorrow,
New Delhi, 17 January 2014: Scores of students and teachers belonging to Delhi University (DU) on Friday organized protest demonstrations at different places here in the national capital demanding rollback of the four-year undergraduate program (FYUP).
The demonstrations, organized outside the Select City Walk shopping mall in Saket and at Deshbandhu College, were attended by students and teachers of various affiliated colleges of DU including Deshbandhu College, Ramanujam College, Acharya Narendra Dev College, College of Vocational Studies, Shaheed Bhagat Singh College and Sri Aurobindo College.
Protesters shouted slogans against university officials and demanded rollback of FYUP which the university started from the academic year of 2013-14.
Nandita Narain, head & associate professor of Mathematics at St. Stephen’s College, also a constituent of DU, believes this program is destructive.
“The FYUP is very destructive. It was brought without any discussion in the university community. Members of the Academic Council were given only two days’ notice to discuss the program,” Narain, who is also president of Delhi University Teachers’ Association, told India Tomorrow.
“It doesn’t follow 12+3 policy which is followed by rest of the country,” she added.
“There was no such proposal from the government. Making such changes for only one university is against uniformity of the country,” she further said.
Protesters also demanded immediate filling-up of several vacant positions in the university.
Narain alleged that about 4500 posts are vacant in DU but Vice Chancellor is not recruiting for these posts.
Since the FYUP was started in 2013, DU has been facing such protests from students and teacher bodies at a regular interval.
