UP minister advocates 75 pc attendance for teachers

Varanasi, Aug 5 (UNI) Uttar Pradesh Higher Education Minister Rakesh Dhar Tripathi today advocated the need for 75 per cent attendance for teachers in institutions of higher education.

''Like 75 per cent attendance is mandatory for students in educational institutions, equal percentage ought to be must for teachers,'' Mr Tripathi said after inaugurating a two-day seminar on 'Role of Students Unions in Changing Education Scenario' at the Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith University here.

The minister advocated the need for holding students' union elections in the Banaras Hindu University (BHU), saying, ''keeping the student body under suspension for nearly a decade at the central university was like strangulating democracy.'' Mr Tripathi, however, expressed concern over violence in student politics. ''There should be no place for violence in student politics, which was now more focussed on issues that concern the cause of vested interests,'' he observed.

Student leaders should not pursue the politics, serving their own interests, but ought to work on issues of national importance, the minister said.

UNI