Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Results Of Education

Pic Courtesy: bmaindia on flickr

I have just recovered from two long days of mourning, the reason - My exams results were declared a couple of days back and well, to put it simply, they weren’t upto my expectations.


However, a trip to the college today clearly showed me how pointless my ‘mourning’ had been. There were students who had fared far worse than me, a few buddies included! Some had even ended up with ATKT’s (KT’s for short, also known in some parts as ‘arrears’) ranging from one to a couple of ‘em to as much as KT’s in all subjects.


But I feel that the students of our college (irrespective of the number of KT’s they possess) are far luckier than those few who suffer from a lot more than just a bad result. I am referring to the horrendous cases of ragging that have taken place in the past week (and many other ragging cases that do not come to our notice).


Something that was considered a ‘ceremony of introductions’, ‘induction ritual’ or simply a ‘prank’ has become a game of humiliation and a chance to take revenge. Inspite of the fact that law prohibits the act of ‘ragging’, ignorance by the authorities at the colleges/universities tends to give the miscreants a free hand at crossing their limits. It is important to note that colleges in metro cities like Mumbai take strict anti-ragging measures and are more successful at preventing it (not completely of course) than their counterparts in towns and villages.


The ignorance exhibited by the authorities (that includes professors, lecturers, principals, deans, etc.) towards cases that could have grave consequences does not surprise me though. That’s because that’s what they usually do - ignore the students and in turn ignore their needs and requirements. Other than a few exceptions, I personally have never come across a professor in college who really takes any kind of interest in his/her students. I mention this because taking interest or at least showing it is the first step to successfully urge a student to take interest in a subject. The next would be to try and make the subject itself simple and interesting for the student, again an area where 99% of the professors fail dismally. So basically, everyone just needs an attitude makeover!


These are only a few suggestions, whereas we require drastic changes at university and collegiate levels if we are to achieve a strong, fair and sane education system. Unless this change happens, such incidents and pass outs like us (with or without our KT’s) would merely be a bad result of education!


5 comments:

Ashish Gourav said...

yeah ragging is an indispensable part of college life

sometimes its good for us
but most of the times its useless :)

Lakshmi Bharadwaj said...

my personal opinion is that ragging needs to be banned! At all levels...it aint fun for the guy who's getting ragged, esp if he's the sensitive type...it's true some ppl need an attitude makeover.

All Talk and No Action said...

I would comment on Ragging -

As long as it is in the spirit of introductions, it's good.
However, I guess when given a free hand, most people stretch this definition.

This has often led to horrendous consequences...

We not only need to ban ragging, but also need to sensitise all parties involved - from victims to families to institutions to perpetrators.

ARJuna said...

Thank you all for coming out with your views,
So summing it up, as far as silly intro's go...it's ok. But it should be ensured that the physical and mental torture carried under the pretext of ragging is banned altogether.

Anonymous said...

Anything taken to an extreme is bad. And so is ragging. One just needs to know when to stop. If our youth do not know when to stop, then shame on them - and ban ragging. (Banning may push ragging underground with more disastrous consequences - need to be careful there!)
Regarding you result: you can take it from me, education and success in life has no correlation. The least education does is guarantees you a mediocre life. Beyond that it is all up to you - how street smart you are. Education takes you only so far.