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Journalism of Courage
A couple of years ago, Dr. S.B.Mujumdar, founder-director, Symbiosis, had sent an interesting article to us. It was a first person account of how he is transformed into a Seasonal VIP8217; at the beginning of every new academic year, after which he becomes incognito. How true! Directors and principals of educational institutions are the most sought after people, since 8220;admission8221; is one word that makes the parents8217; hearts pound and their blood pressure rise. And keeps the student on tenterhooks.
But what happens after admissions? This time, we are referring to colleges, particularly the professional ones, where admission is just 10 per cent of the battle won. Thereafter, as every semester ends, a new agony begins. Majority of these students have backlogs fail in subjects on their marksheets, but vehemently believe that 8220;it is impossible to get such less marks. There must be something wrong in the corrections.8221; And, hey presto, revaluation and reassessment forms are filled in, with a renewed hope and vigour. Which for most students often turns into a wild mirage.
With three and a half lakh students, every year, appearing for innumerable examinations this number includes students who appear for the April as well as the October examinations under the umbrella of UoP, Dastane and his effective staff strength of 120, are perpetually on their toes.
As for Dastane, he is more than a seasonal VIP though he himself is very low profile! 8220;Only half of July and the entire August are lean seasons for me,8221; states Dastane amusedly. Otherwise, he is busy anchoring 240 different examinations during the year, besides other administrative work and coping up with parents and students to whom he calmly lends his shoulders, to vent their distress and frustration.
He has spent 25 years as a professor of economics at the Nowrosjee Wadia College. Subsequently, he was the vice-principal for five years there. Since 1995, he is in this hot seat as Controller of Examination, and has not taken a single day8217;s leave casual, medical or otherwise. Where8217;s the time, he says, as he is particularly harassed by the revaluation system, that has gone out of his control. The only time he takes a break is when he travels to places in and out of Maharashtra for official tours. 8220;Those are the time when I actually relax.8221;
Rues Dastane, 8220;The revaluation was a crisis management system of the university but since the past few years, it has become an awesome burden. Imagine, we have to deal with 25,000 cases of revaluation of papers of different streams every year and all our energy is spent here. Generally speaking, the revaluation process, should not take up more than 20 per cent of my time but I end up spending 80 per cent of my time for it.8221; Dastane feels that a total lack of communication between students and their respective college is the chief reason why he keeps getting endless stream of visitors.
Says he, I feel so sorry, that parents take a full day8217;s leave just to meet me on trivial issues, that can be easily sorted out by the college itself. They wait for hours on end here to see me and then I finish off the matter in 20 seconds, I feel sad that they have lost their valuable time. All because of a serious communication gap between the student and the college authorities. I get long distance calls from students, with frivolous queries of whether a particular subject in their course, is out of 80 or 100 marks. I pity them, that they need to spend unnecessary money when they can get it cleared from their institution itself.8221;
As for the revaluations, Dastane feels that 8220;the majority of the student community seems to have lost faith in the university8217;s assessment system. Though, I must confess that our examination system too is partly to be blamed. Interestingly, despite the mammoth increase in the revaluation papers, the percentage of rectification has stood constant at 15 per cent to 20 per cent.8221;
What are the reasons behind this shocking increase for revaluation? Observes Dastane, 8220;Even those who get 50 per cent and those who have got higher percentage but have no aptitude go in for professional courses, which have become a status symbol in the society. Such students cannot cope up with the tough subjects and end up having backlogs. It is sad that courses like the BSc which have excellent subjects and a great potential, have been deserted because of some meaningless glamour attached to medicine and engineering.8221;
Nevertheless, Dastane is anything but an indifferent official. His kind words of advice or suggestion, brings instant relief to the student who is on the throes of a dilemma. But if students think, he can be a magician, warding off unpleasantries on their mark sheet, by a stroke of his wand, they are asking for too much!
