The rants of a student

Note: In this post, I am not generalizing the lecturers. I want to throw light on some notions created by some lecturers in their mind that makes a difference they don't realize. To my brother Ajith and his wife Meghna, I just want to say, you both are the best lecturers ever.

I had written a post on the lecturers who take revenge on their students. Actually there is more to it than revenge. When I was staying in a paying guest house, there was a gal staying in the next room. One weekend I had been to her room and learnt she was working as a lecturer in an engineering college. She had graduated just a year ago. She asked about my marks in engineering college and I told her the truth. Just have a look at the conversation.

Me: Don’t ask my marks. Really low. I don’t even have a 60% aggregate. Forget about it.

Her: What? Not even a 60%! I bet you did not study anything.

Me: Don’t be silly. I am not that good at studies. Plus the lecturers were really bad for me. I don’t know what they would get out of giving less internal marks. If they had not done so strict a correction, I would have got a 60% and would be eligible to try for many companies.

Her: No no don’t give me those excuses. There is nothing called good at studies or not good at studies. You people are just lazy to work hard.

Me: *rolling my eyes* Why in the world am I speaking to her! She is crazy.  No there are many people who find it difficult to understand the subjects. There are many people who don’t remember things till the exam.

Her: These are the remaining excuses dear. Why can’t students like you just work hard? I also have students who just don’t work hard. They can’t answer one question I ask them.

Me: Okay, but what about the assignments? Do they submit them on time?

Her: Yes they do the assignments very well. I suspected that they copied from the other brilliant students. But they are so smart. The time which they take to change the sentences from the assignments from the brilliant students could have been used to actually write the assignments on their own. Plus they would have understood the assignment also well. Crazy students. I don’t really understand why they act so irresponsible. Don’t they want a good future?  You know I have given them even just 2 marks in the internal examination.  **proud face**

Me: I thought lecturers feel proud when their students get more marks and 2 is a really bad mark even if it is out of 25. What is she feeling proud for? What if they have actually taken a lot of time in writing assignments? Like me!

Her: It is not possible, Preethika. If they can work hard for the assignments, they can work hard for the exams.

Me:  Oh my god I am getting nostalgic!  For assignments, you need not remember things, you just have to understand the questions, make answers and write them in good proper and to-the-point sentences. What if they can’t remember well for the answers?

Her: You are giving the same excuses again. There is nothing like that. They are just lazy to work hard.

Me: You mean to say all have the same capacity to grasp points?

Her: Definitely!

Me: Oh god she’s so stubborn! She can even say that she is a guy to prove her point. Everyone is not the same! Some people don’t even need to learn at home, like my uncle. He just had to listen to the class and he used to top the class. Some are not that gifted. They have to work hard. Some don’t understand at all. The time given for them to learn is not enough. Some people won’t even remember what they learnt 10 days before.

Her: That is impossible. I have seen my classmates who never worked hard and never learnt a word but always got real good marks. May be they are the lecturer’s favourite and lecturers used to throw marks at them. What about those students who work hard day and night? Don’t they deserve better marks?

Me: Wow! Now I know why she felt proud for giving 2 marks to students. She was giving justice to the brilliant students. Wait a sec. Do brilliant students need justice with marks? Forget it focus on the arguement, Pritz!  I thought they give marks for writing the right answers. Oh god! Speaking to her is like giving an oral test. The only difference is you know what to answer here.

courtesy google images

Her: But the way the answers are written will show how hard they have worked. Less points and just to-the-point explanations. If they understood the points properly, they would have written more. I don’t give marks to such people. Plus they don’t answer if I ask questions in the class. So I know they don’t study. Such students don’t deserve marks.

Me: What if they can’t grasp the points in the first go. They might be working really hard at home to understand it.

Her: Impossible! Neither they pay attention to the class nor they learn at home. That is why they cannot answer.

Me: She is impossible. Now I understand why India is still a developing country. Okay I got to go. See ya tomorrow. (I got up to go. I suddenly stopped at the door.) By the way, there is another possibility. You might not be teaching well enough for them to understand or boring enough to follow. Bye. *smiles*

I never saw her again.

I had thought that some lecturers are sick. That day, after the conversation, I realized I was true. The counsellor part of my head started wondering what was actually wrong with her. She might have worked really hard, has certainly seen many fellow students like my uncle and she is too jealous of them for sure. Plus to make things worse, she might be in a family full of toppers and she would be the poor student among them. (I am sorry to myself for wasting time thinking so much about this female.) She reminded me of a lecturer of mine. I have mentioned her in Point #1 of this post. First of all she had noted me and used to ask me questions everyday. Many students had told she was a good lecturer. That had made me excited. But when she asked me questions in every class, it became very difficult for me to follow her lecture. Every day I would be tensed that she would catch me. Thus I lost the track. The day of the result, she called me to her cabin and shouted at me badly. Her words meant I was irresponsible and did not have any intention to study or get into a good company. How will I if she doesn't allow me to. We all just need a push, a support to understand better and not get bullied and get a complex.

So my questions still remain the same. Why do lecturers act like they are giving marks from their pocket? Why do they act like we asked them to donate both their kidneys when we beg them for one mark? One possibility is the above. Other possibilities can be job dissatisfaction and frustration. Another lecturer was the one in Point #3 in this post. She did that because she was a tiny lecturer. Very thin and very short. The students will underestimate her because of her appearance. So she tortured the students to hell so that the students will listen to her. Basically, inferiority complex. But bringing problems to students’ marks and in turn their future is as bad as forcing them to watch yet another movie where the main actor is the music director who sings songs from his nose. Sorry for the cheesy comparison.

Okay now you might be wondering why I said that India is still a developing country because of lecturers. Well, it does not completely depend on them. This is the theory. There is a really less percent of people who work in the same field or subject they study. Even if they do, they just follow some three to four subjects from the entire course. It is not as important to take all the subjects that seriously like you do for medical science for the obvious reasons. Then why fuss about the understanding of subjects so much? Result is what matters because the companies will allow the students to write the interview depending on the marks. It is so sad that they see the marks first. Marks are all about how much you remember and not how well you code or test some software. I love coding a lot and  I am good at aptitude questions. But I was not allowed to prove myself to them because of my marks in those subjects which I don’t use at work now at all. Now employment in India is limited. The system of grades is not good. But it is not easy to change the system. The only people who can make it better for the students who suffer because of the system are the lecturers. Instead of that, they try to play God and decide who is worthy of what and make them fail in finals. What would the lecturers get by giving the students less marks and make them listen to the word NO at every opportunity? Not everyone has a good financial support to start their own business or company. There are so many poor people out there. Some people struggle hard to get a job to pay back their education loan. If more people get financially self sufficient, there will be less people who are poor. India will soon be a rich country. I guess I am getting too much out of the point but at least on a small scale it is possible right? Why increase unemployment? Okay you might have an argument that engineers can get job anywhere, for example in a bank or a government office. I totally agree but what about those people who can get jobs only in banks or government offices? Is it fair to snatch their only job opportunities? And unemployment directly relates to India still being a developing country, which proves my point.

As I have told earlier, I am not saying that all lecturers are like this.These very lecturers I spoke about above are 'favourite lecturers' for many bright students. I also agree that there are students who actually irresponsible and don't care about their future. But who gave the lecturers the right to find or decide which student is like that and punish them by making them fail in the finals? Is that what lecturers are supposed to do? Give them assignments, ask them questions but why make them fail in the finals?  This is a graduation course. If the students had to learn to be responsible, they would have done that before entering the course. Let them pass and move to the next year and get out of the college. Why make one of their own beloved hard working good student lose a seat because a lecturer had failed an irresponsible senior student for sabak sikhaaying purpose?
What do you people think? Do let me know.