Rethinking NET : An Urgent Appeal

WE, the undersigned, are extremely concerned about the recurring pattern of failure of students of English in clearing the NET over the years. This has created a shortage of qualified teachers for English Departments, keeping out bright and deserving candidates from the profession. These are students who have cleared BA and MA in English Literature with marks that are often in the top five percent of their university; further, many of them have also qualified through the MPhil programme but despite multiple attempts ,find themselves unable to pass the National Eligibility Test conducted by the University Grants Commission.
Although the pass percentage of English students taking the NET has been shockingly low for several years now, the results for June 2010 defy all logic and are therefore unacceptable. Only two of approximately 1,100 candidates who took the exam in English from Delhi Centre have cleared it, and nationwide figures are even more astonishing: only 11 people in the entire country have cleared NET in English. From Delhi centre alone: in Commerce55 NETs + 17 JRFs; in Political Science -- 38 NETs+ 49 JRFs ; in Hindi -- 66 NETs+ 63 JRFs. According to the data released by UGC, 1221 candidates appeared in Hindi, 1456 candidates appeared in Commerce and 1789 candidates appeared in Hindi. When one compares the pass percentage of other subjects with that of English in Delhi alone, the findings are shocking. It is worth comparing these countrywide results in English with other subjects. In Hindi, for example, 918 (approximately) have received NET/JRF. It is only second to Commerce ,948 (approximately) as the subject in which the highest number of candidates have qualified for lectureship.

In the first place, we would like to point out that the UGC-NET does not in any way test the teaching skills of those who need to qualify. These are candidates who have already passed a series of specialized papers in their subject and the NET as an exam only repeats the same memory testing without addressing any other skill required of a teacher. Ultimately, it is only through a rigorous interview process conducted by a panel of experts that teaching appointments are made. Therefore we strongly feel that the NET, with its fundamentally exclusionary policy, stands superfluous and redundant.

The focus of the Sixth Pay Commission for higher education has been on attracting young talent into the teaching profession but there seems to be an obvious clash with the more than two decade old NET policy. The results of June 2010, in fact, draw urgent attention to the destructive implications of the NET policy as one that is radically flawed in both its vision and implementation.

The UGC has been changing its position about the need for making NET mandatory many a times. According to UGC Regulation 2000, NET shall remain the compulsory requirement for appointment as Lecturer even for candidates having PhD degree. However candidates who have completed M.Phil degree or have submitted P.hD thesis in the concerned subject upto 31st December 1993 are exempted from appearing in the NET exam. According to UGC Regulation 2002, candidates who had submitted their PhD thesis on or before 31st December 2002 were exempted from NET. The UGC Regulation passed in 2006 states that candidates with PhD are exempted from NET for PG and UG level teaching while candidates with M.Phil are exempted from NET for UG level teaching only. There is a sort of an arbitrariness associated with these exemptions.

In the light of this we are, therefore, asking for an immediate revaluation of the need for NET as an eligibility requirement policy at this critical point of crisis in higher education.