JNU introduces online faculty appraisal, faces criticism

Jawaharlal Nehru University has rolled out an online application system for filing appraisal forms for its faculty members in a bid to ease out the process of promotions at the university, a varsity official said on Tuesday.

With this, JNU has become the first central university to adopt an online Annual Performance Appraisal Report (APAR) in the country for its faculty members, the varsity claimed.

“This system will benefit the teaching staff at the university by completely digitising the appraisal form submission system and helping with paperless record keeping and upkeep,” a senior JNU official said.
“We have rolled out e-APAR as part of our digital initiatives,” he added.

The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) has opposed the move, saying that it will make promotions “unnecessarily complicated” by adding a layer of “bureaucracy” to the process.

“The faculty members already submit an annual report listing the academic work done by them throughout the year as per the 2018 UGC order. Introducing another system in the name of digitisation will only make it more complicated and add unnecessary bureaucracy,” said DK Lobiyal, president, JNUTA.

The assessment of the performance of teachers as “satisfactory” or “not satisfactory” will be based on the review of the head of the department, Lobiyal said, adding that it may leave room for partiality.

APAR is an online system using which faculty members can submit the self-assessment of their annual performance to the Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) of the university.