‘JNUTA is instigating students’

NEW DELHI: A group of JNU teachers supporting compulsory attendance on Tuesday accused members of the JNU Teachers Association of ‘instigating’ trouble on the Campus over the issue.

The faction comprising more than 40 professors said that compulsory attendance would help deter students from going for dharnas during class hours.

“Many students on the Campus do not come to classes and instead go on dharnas. As a result they get less marks. If an M.Phil/Phd student does this, he/she will take more than seven years time to comlete the said course and then they will accuse their supervisors,” a representative of the group, Atul Kumar Johri, told the reporters.

However, when asked if there was data to prove that absenteeism led to poor performance by the students, they said the compulsory attendance initiative would help find it.

“The disturbance on the Campus is instigated by Leftists and JNU Teachers Association. The students come with a fair mind, but it is around 20 per cent of teachers who are instigating them,” Mr Johri alleged. He reiterated the administration’s stand that the V-C had cleared the attendance initiative after a discussion and debate in the Academic Council meeting.

Prof. Heeraman Tiwari, said, “The professors are asked to retake classes for those who didn’t attend lectures and have to answer complaints from other students about repetition of classes.”

On Academic Council member said, Madhu Kishwar’s tweets that attendance resolution was not passed in the council meeting, they said she did not sit for the entire session that day.

Meanwhile the JNUTA, which began a protest on Tuesday demanding withdrawal of circulars issued on attendance and convening the indefinitely postponed Academic Council meeting, said it would intensify the agitation if the administration did not consider it.

“We will intensify the protest and also go out and meet people of influence outside the university, including MPs and officials from Union ministry of HRD to make ourselves heard,” JNUTA president Sonajharia Minz said.