Shimla: College teachers to boycott internal checking of HPU's 2nd-year papers

Bhanu P Lohumi

Shimla, May 8

Government college teachers will boycott the internal checking of the second-year papers as Himachal Pradesh University has made a “mockery of the system by compromising secrecy”.

Against HPU ordinance

The practice is against the university ordinance and spirit of secrecy and quality of education is being compromised. — RL Sharma, Gen Secy, HGCTA

In a letter to principals of colleges affiliated to the HPU issued on May 6, the university said the answer scripts of BA, BSc, BCom and Shastri second-year would be checked in the colleges concerned on the pattern of the third year.

“The practice is against the university ordinance and spirit of secrecy and quality of education is being compromised,” said general secretary of the Himachal Government College Teachers Association (HGCTA) RL Sharma.

Previously, answer scripts used to be evaluated at different centres but for the past three years, the practice has been given up on the pretext of Covid and the evaluation of the papers of the batch passing this year was done internally, he added.

The association had submitted a representation, stating that teachers would not do the internal evaluation at the college level, but the university authorities were not considering the views of the college teachers, the association said.

“We oppose the move of the university for internal evaluation of second year at the college-level as many petty political leaders at the local level are putting pressure on teachers and threatening them to evaluate papers of students as per their directions,” said teachers in a joint statement issued by the central executive of the HGCTA.

Moreover, the previous payment of evaluation and conduct of theory and practical examination have been pending for the last three years and despite the fact that the university authorities have raised the examination fee more than 10 to 15 times, conduct and examination rates have not been revised since 2016.