Delhi University teachers’ orgaisations unhappy with bigger-than-ideal UG, PG batch sizes

Delhi University’s recent notification outlining the student capacity for undergraduate and postgraduate courses has faced criticism from teachers’ organizations, who argue that the specified batch sizes are larger than ideal.

As per the notification dated November 11, the university has set the following limits for student numbers in each batch: 60 for lectures, 30 for tutorials, and 25 for practical classes in undergraduate programs. For postgraduate courses, the batch sizes are 50, 25, and 15-20, respectively. Registrar Vikas Gupta explained that these guidelines aim to maintain uniformity in the teacher-student ratio across all programs offered by the university.

It’s important to note that these figures exclude supernumerary seats, constituting five percent of the total capacity and reserved for students from sports and other quotas. The notification allows colleges to determine mentor and mentee group sizes in accordance with University Grants Commission regulations.

However, the Democratic Teachers Front (DTF) has strongly criticized the notification, describing it as “completely ridiculous” and contrary to the norms established by the Delhi University’s academic council under the Learning Outcome Based Curriculum Framework (LoCF). The DTF emphasized that the LoCF, adopted in 2019, recommends an ideal tutorial group size of eight to ten students to address the diverse needs of students. The DTF expressed concern that the notification, issued without deliberation in statutory bodies, could significantly impact the quality of teaching and learning.

Additionally, the Action and Development Delhi Teachers’ Association (AADTA), the Aam Aadmi Party’s national teachers’ organization, has called for the withdrawal of the notification. AADTA raised objections to the considerable increase in tutorial sizes, suggesting that it resembles a classroom setting and could compromise the quality of education. The organization also advocated for the hiring of thousands of ad hoc and temporary teachers on a full-time basis to meet the demand, emphasizing that these notifications have bypassed the academic and executive councils, which are statutory bodies within the university.