JOIN USDU teachers demand old-style appraisals
Asking University Grants Commission to scrap the Academic Performance Indicator (API)- based appraisal system, Delhi University Teachers Association and Federation of Central Universities Teachers’ Association in their letter to the UGC on Thursday said the move has been counterproductive.
“Ever since the new Performance Based Appraisal System (PBAS) based on API score was proposed as an idea, the DUTA and the FEDCUTA have been of the view that the quantification of teachers’ performance is neither desirable nor serves the purpose of improving the quality of Higher Education,” the joint letter said.
In 2010, the UGC had introduced API score for universities to make appraisals, promotions and recruitments transparent .
“The general consensus is that it has proved to be extremely detrimental for healthy academic practices and has done nothing to raise quality of teaching in the institutions of higher learning,” the letter said.
Total neglect The teacher bodies claim that neglect of classroom teaching and of engagement with students outside the classroom has been the biggest fallout of the API score based assessment.
“The compulsion to be present in seminars and conferences to acquire points leads to the neglect of classroom teaching. On the other hand, the amount of time that teachers spend with students outside the formal structure of the classroom has been devalued,” the letter to the UGC said.
It further said, “By pushing teachers to acquire points for recruitment and promotion, it (the API based assessment) forces teachers to mechanically turn to score building rather than reflecting on their responsibilities to teaching to their students.”
DUTA and FEDCUTA also said the uniform marking pattern is especially detrimental to the teachers from socially and economically backward areas, as the current API system expects demands ‘unrealistic’ output from teachers irrespective of available facilities and infrastructure.