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At least eight out of 10 ad hoc teachers working in the English Department at Delhi University's Ramjas College were allegedly displaced on Monday, 4 December.
In a 4 December dated notification, the college published a list of 11 permanent faculty members who were recruited after an interview. Out of this, only two long-serving ad hoc teachers of the department made it to the list.
The decision comes a week after Delhi University said 3,441 permanent teachers had been appointed at its departments and constituent colleges, The Hindu reported.
Speaking to The Quint, the ad hoc teachers alleged that the ongoing appointment process was "unfair," "arbitrary," and that permanent positions were given to those with "lower qualifications" than the existing teachers.
The Quint reached out to Ramjas College Principal Hardeep Kaur. The story will be updated once we receive a response.
The incident at Ramjas college comes nearly two months after ad hoc professors were displaced at DU's Indraprastha and Satyawati colleges.
Since the hiring of permanent faculty began in 2023, ad hoc professors, many of whom have been teaching for over a decade, found themselves in an uncertain situation.
While the ad hoc teachers at Ramjas were "aware of the trend" of displacement, they were "shocked" to see almost everyone "removed" from their jobs.
A second ad hoc professor, also requesting anonymity, told The Quint that it was unfair for the teachers to be in the position that they were in and added that it was a "politically-motivated move."
Meanwhile, a senior faculty member in the English department of Ramjas College called the move "non-compassionate“.
“These (displaced teachers) are not very young people. Most of them are easily 40-plus, who have worked in ad hoc capacities for so long, and have families to support. To just throw them out overnight and ask them to fend for themselves. They are human beings after all," the professor told The Quint.
The displaced teachers are also 'vexed' by people with alleged lower academic qualifications and lesser experience replacing them. They claimed that the recruitment was not done based on merit.
The ad hoc teachers The Quint spoke to believed that the displacement will not only affect them, but also the students in the English department.
"It is very demoralising for the students to lose professors with whom they have built certain connections with. People who have come in their place is really not equipped to teach them. That will definitely have a terrible impact on the students," one of the displaced teachers claimed.
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