Pic Courtesy: bmaindia on flickrI 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!
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