A group of college teachers under the University of Mumbai along with a few Senate members staged a protest at the Fort campus gate of the university on Monday, voicing their strong opposition to the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which according to them is “haphazard” and diluting the importance of core academic disciplines along with other concerns.
According to the protesting teachers under the Bombay University College Teachers’ Union (BUCTU), several abrupt changes have been brought into the conventional education system without adequate groundwork or consultation in the bid to bring a flexible academic structure recommended under NEP 2020.
The teachers claimed that interdisciplinary and co-curricular courses are being introduced without a clear plan for teaching, resources, or staffing. They have also pointed out that in this process, environmental science, which was made a compulsory subject for all disciplines as per Supreme Court guidelines, has been ignored.
In a joint statement by the protesters, the members said, “The haphazard introduction of interdisciplinary and co-curricular courses without adequate preparation, during implementation of NEP 2020, is reducing the weightage of subjects under major disciplines. The university has ignored the concerns of the teaching community that the dilution of specialisation will negatively impact students’ employability. Several colleges are taking arbitrary decisions and offering existing core subjects (eg. Mathematics, EVS, Business Economics) under optional heads.”
They also pointed out that this change has altered the existing workload of teachers and colleges are compelling them to teach subjects outside their discipline.
“The absence of structured planning has created confusion. Departments are scrambling to adjust to the changes because in an already inadequate number of permanent faculty posts there are few of them that are filled with teachers having expertise in particular subjects. But with changing structures, they are forced to teach subjects apart from what they were hired for because the importance of core subjects is diluted,” a senior teacher explained.
Additionally, protesting teachers have highlighted that the issue is more complex for colleges in rural and hilly parts, where there is already a serious lack of resources.
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Some of the other issues pointed out by the protesters include chaos and mismanagement of the Mumbai University’s exam section, causing delays and errors in results, varsity’s heavy dependence on contractual staff, lack of necessary facilities in varsity’s sub-campuses, and other infrastructure issues.
The protesters also condemned a circular issued by the varsity in September 2024 which prohibits any organisation or an individual from holding a protest without prior notice.
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