New Delhi, Nov 16 (PTI) Delhi University has notified the number of students in each batch for undergraduate and postgraduate courses, a move that has drawn flak from teachers’ organisations for what they called bigger-than-ideal batch sizes.
The notification was sent to colleges on November 11 and stated that 60 students were assigned to lectures, 30 to tutorials, and 25 to practical classes in undergraduate programs. Postgraduate courses have numbers of 50, 25 and 15-20 students per batch.
Vikas Gupta, registrar of the university, stated that the university developed a rule to ensure uniformity in teacher-student ratios across all its programmes.
These figures do not include supernumerary seats which account for five per cent of total strength. They are allotted to students who have met other quotas.
“The college may decide on mentor and mentee group size as per the relevant provisions of the University Grants Commission’s regulations as applicable from time to time,” the notification read.
Terming the notification “completely ridiculous”, Democratic Teachers Front (DTF) and said it defies the norms adopted by the Delhi University’s academic council as part of the Learning Outcome Based Curriculum Framework (LoCF).
In a statement, DTF said the LoCF course work adopted by the university in 2019 clearly describes “eight-10 students as an ideal size of tutorial groups” so that the varying needs of diverse types of students could be met.
“The notification, which will redefine teaching-learning environment, has been issued without any deliberation in statutory bodies. This is despite that the November 22 academic council meeting has been scheduled. If these workload norms are implemented, it will impact quality of teaching-learning severely,” it said.
“Similarly, LoCF very clearly states that the lab group size should be of 12 students. Why does the DU administration want to dilute these well thought out norms that have been perfected through many decades of academic functioning?” the front said.
Action and Development Delhi Teachers’ Association (AADTA), the Aam Aadmi Party’s national teachers’ organisation, has demanded that the notification be withdrawn.
“The tutorials size has increased by around 300 per cent and thus become very much classroom-like. This will greatly compromise the quality and education. It is also to reduce the requirement of teachers, which in turn will reduce the quality of education,” it said in a statement.
AADTA stated that thousands of teachers were working in temporary and ad-hoc capacities and should be employed full-time to meet demand.
“These notifications have bypassed the statutory bodies: academic and executive councils,” it added. PTI VA VA CJ CJ
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