In a bid to ensure more academic pursuits and less ‘extracurricular’ adventurism, the Jawaharlal Nehru University had made 75% of attendance mandatory for students as well as for teachers. The step comes in order to give more emphasis on academics and less on unwarranted activities that JNU is infamous for.
The University administration will not be granting leaves to teachers, even if they have to attend conferences and seminars abroad. The reason cited for it is that, they are not marking their own attendance or submitting attendance records of their students.
On November 13, Registrar Pramod Kumar made this move official through a circular. “All proposals/requests of faculty members, including leave requests, should be forwarded by the Deans and Chairpersons of the School/Centre/Special Centre concerned for consideration of competent authority, only after confirming that the faculty member concerned has adhered to the attendance rules of the university and has been marking his/her attendance.”
“While forwarding request/ paper/proposal of faculties, it has to be ensured by the Deans of Schools/ Chairperson of Centres/Special Centres that the faculty concerned has been taking attendance of students as well. As desired by the competent authority, no request/paper/proposal of faculty will be entertained/considered if he/she has not adhered to the above decisions of statutory bodies,” it said.
Instead of being a welcome move, it is facing severe retaliation from students as well as teachers. But the administration has fearlessly went ahead with its decision for marking attendance compulsory for teachers as well. Surprisingly,a certain section from student fraternity, unwelcoming this decision, filed a petition in the Delhi High Court against imposition of mandatory attendance. The matter is now sub-judice.
Some of the teachers have called this righteous step taken by the administration as an ‘arbitrary decision’ to which Registrar Kumar responded by saying, “The Executive Council has adopted mandatory attendance; teachers not marking attendance are being denied leaves.”
In the recent past, JNU has been more in news for disruptive, anti-national activities than any sort of academic accolade and the administration is working to ensure that this trend is rectified and students and the faculty should be focused on academics and not the ‘extracurricular activities’ that are detrimental to the university or the country.
Before this move the university administration also banned protest gatherings and processions and also restricted outsider entry into hostels. This step was taken to restore normalcy in the campus, in his statement Registrar Kumar said, “The JNU administration has taken all necessary measures to ensure normal functioning of the university: no indiscipline and act of creating disturbance will be allowed. Any kind of misinformation or rumor which causes anxiety and fear among the students and residents of JNU campus will be met with strict disciplinary action, envisaged in the Rules and Statutes of JNU.”