Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Teachers and unions

Sir, — Harsh Sethi, in his article `An ill-thought agitation?' (Sept. 24) has been rather mild, though unsparing on the agitating teachers of Delhi University, who deserved to be fully exposed of their hypocrisy, barring the silent majority of sincere teachers whose sane voice gets vociferously drowned by the aggressive and materialistic minority. True, the Government too needs to be faulted for the `escalation of tuition fees, reduction of subsidies to the tertiary education and downgrading of public provisioning to universities' but `encouraging greater involvement of private sector and shifting from tenurial positions to contractual appointments in undergraduate colleges and university departments' must be welcomed by the students and parents alike. False cries — like `grievous assault on the autonomy of the university and the teaching-learning process, inadequacy of curricula, poor quality of text books, examination system and deplorable infrastructure' — are made only to give a dishonest intellectual veneer to justify their unjustifiable agitation and a subtle subterfuge to retain the placid pattern of their lives. Still, the bedrock of committed teachers quietly continue to be the ideal innovators, the ever-willing seekers and dispensers of knowledge with transparent love for their subjects and students.

Sant Prakash Gupta,
Agra

Sir, — In his hard-hitting article, `An ill-thought agitation?', Harsh Sethi has attempted to expose some of the glaring inadequacies of the teaching fraternity. Lack of accountability, poor quality of teaching, persistent demand for promotion in the absence of commensurate devotion to duty and dogged reluctance, if not obduracy to put in 22 hours of work a week, figure prominently in the write-up.

Comparably, those working in a bank, hospital, police department or any other establishment of public utility put in a minimum of three times more work than our much pampered university teachers. The very usage of the term ``workload'' carries with it a negative connotation. To an ideal teacher, teaching is a pleasurable and positive pursuit and not a burdensome load. It is some consolation that the situation is not all that dismal in women's colleges wherein accountability is significantly better.

S. Dandapani,
Mysore

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