A Kirori Mal College teacher, Rudrashish Chakraborty, turned down the Delhi University’s award on the 92nd Foundation Day, citing flawed feedback mechanism to rate teachers.
He is one of the 39 teachers who were shortlisted for the Teacher Excellence Awards for receiving high rating from the students.
In his letter to theuniversity administration, Chakraborty alleged that the teaching excellence awards have been instituted by the university to promote the newly launched four-year undergraduate programme (FYUP), especially the foundation courses.
“The feedback mechanism should be based on feedback from other students and colleagues,” he added, arguing that the ‘arbitrary’ feedback would vitiate the academic environment.
“My engagement with the first year students of my college is not only confined to my own discipline, that is, English, but also only the teaching of Discipline 1 papers: a nondescript feat clearly out of sync with the global standards aspired by our University,” he said in an email to the university.
Chakraborty in his letter also expressed fear that flawed feedback mechanism might be detrimental to teachers’ promotion.
He said that the English department of Kirori Mal College has a developed an informal mechanism of student feedback over the last many years, which includes ‘detailed and informed’ feedback from the undergraduate and postgraduate students registered with us.
“I don’t understand what separates me from other teachers,” Chakraborty said.On Thursday, however, the university in a programme at the convention hall went on to recognise excellence in teaching and public service. Former teacher and eminent jurist, P P Rao, was conferred the ‘Nishtha Dhritih Satyam Samman’, the newly created highest award of the university, for his exceptional achievements and services to the University of Delhi.
The university also unveiled a statute of Mahatma Gandhi and launched its smart new website on the occasion.