In recent past Dalits committing sucide in the education institution has arose lot of debate in the way how administration discriminates students. It has become a trend to form solidarity committee after a person committs suicide. HCU was one of those recently got subjected to such an issue. In fact if the administration and the students would have taken the issues related to discrimination seriously, then we could have avoided such incidents. Both of them fail in doing so therefore Students take a drastic steps when we do not support them or try to stop the discrimination met by them at the beginning level. In Hyderabad Central University, after Senthils sucide, the Department changed its rules, which was an outcome of a committee formed to inquire into the issue.
The present issue which aggravated the normality of the atmosphere, in English and Foreign Languages University disturbed the students community a lot in particular the SC/ST/OBC and minority students. Actually the discrimination got blew from the German department where certain students were not allowed to sit in the class. When we analyzed the issue it was found, there were many such students belonging to socially Backward community who lacked in to be promoted to the next semester.
Though the university provides the Remideal Course for the backward students. Still we require a through investigation on why majority of failures are from reserved background. Because, we cannot work like an administrative body which find a temporary solution and washes its hands away. Hence the administration should be pressed to form a Committee with autonomous power, comprising students, faculties and experts from outside to enquire and bring suggestion to the administration. This would be a possible way of reaching to the students.
And since we are a growing University, we could set a role model to other Universities with the help of Vice-Chancellor, Whom for sure will support such an initiative.
In relation to the above reasons we again request students, non-teaching staffs belonging to reserved category and well wishers to demand the administration to form a committee that will enquire the academics of students and implement their suggestion.
check the link for more details on Caste, Suicide
http://insightyv.com/?p=300
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Discrimination met by Dalit students
How Caste functions in an academical atmosphere, at the level of teaching.
Across India the question of Caste and its funtion is debated and discussed in various fields, at present let us focus on academics and political arena. Therefore let us understand Caste in the present issue (in the context of English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad). The Indian government had introduced the reservation policy for those who are socially and economically backwardness, the backwardness was debated and discussed. The backwardness is still debated in the educational and other various arenas. It is every important to see on what level those issues are debated, either in bookish or in practical. Before let us see where do the backward students come from?
The majority of the Indian population dwells in the rural population, without schools and sometimes without even electricity. They live under poverty. It becomes an imagination for the partents to admit their sons in english medium. Some times even the sons/daughters go to work to support their family. There are students who go to school for the mid day meal. These are very little problems they face in their every day life. Still students explore in their studies.
To imporve the backwardness the Indian government introduced Government schools in across every state. Every person knows the conditions of those schools. In fact those are schools for name sake in rural areas, where there are no faculties even and in certain places there are no proper buildings to hold classes, when it rains or during the hot sun. Even the facuties will be irrruegular, I still remember a faculty who will be drunk in class (Government Hight School, Kotagiri),
Those people who get educated and come to a higher position also fails in addressing these primary and long term issues. There are still good number of population do not even go to the schools. It lies due to the lack of visibility from the governmental pro gramme to educate or to reform the academic atmosphere. Most students from rural areas are the first generation. Yes, it is surprising that they are first generation even after 60 years of Independence. The surprise does not stop here, because there are crores of people who are not availing this education also still. (Let us ask ourselves. How many Bhangis, mehtars, pakis, sakkiliyars, or any student from Scavenging background? When you count you may get a shocking result.)
It is as important to discuss or see even how their atmosphere is in back home, which is an alienated from their studies. However, still people explore in the results and at recent times there are people who come under open category. It may arise a question immediately, why there are people who do not explore as the others who do. The answer should be directed towards ourselves, why in general category there are people who fail?. Therefore the success of some students cannot be compared or be a deciding factor of the system or the teachers involved in teaching. Even faculty knew that there are different students coming from different background, socially, regionally, economically, to study. The teachers should know that the students coming from such a deprived background is not an optional of their choice. If the teacher is aware of such a background or the history of their backwardness, then the teacher will pay special attention and encourage such students in class. The encouraging happens but at what level, just at the level of comedy (monetary help and providing books) or with sincerity in educating them. Even the success of any teacher lies not at the level of students who are already ‘forward’ in their education but rather those who educate students from the scratch. How many students did this university produce? However, there is a limit even in the involvement of faculty is concerned, which I am aware of. And I am speaking in the level of their involvement not on their limitation above the sky. There are rules framed or governed by the administration to make sure the students involvement in the academics too. I am speaking of those students whose academical involvement was fulfilled, such as their attendance and giving their internal exams.
Every teachers who teach would have knew that certain students are not going to qualify. Before going further I even like to say there can be occasions where students are forced not to qualify in their exams. In the first case the teachers should have involved to teach her and made sure she is prepared to face the exam.
Let us take the statistics of the present exams result. There are many students who are failed. Cant we see some similarity among all those who failed the exam. If we think that they do not study well then I suppose we have to go and read the injustice done to those people historically and get back to read the rest of the article. The similarity is Caste in large.
The Face of Discrimination on Caste lines
According to the Supreme Court order, said students who failed in three subjects should be given a chance and promoted to the next semester. Though the order was these in favour of the students one department was reluctant to follow, and showed the University rules where the students cannot be permitted. The teacher even said if I have the power to allow them in class I would be the first person to do so. Therefore it was said that the faculty will allow if only VC, the supreme authority to decide, involves by permitting them to allow in class. Then came the shock when VC wrote to the faculty to allow, the faculty replied she might resign rather allowing the student in the class. This is where the social context interfere to make us understand the reason for the faculty not involving the students to the class. The faculty is from the Upper Caste and this is the third time the same teacher shows such a discrimination to students who are socially backward. Is this the behavior of the teacher to show such a discrimination towards students who are socially backward? However, I would like to say at this instance that it is not all faculties are treating socially backward students like this. There are many faculties who treat all students equally and educate them. As a result here I am writing because of a faculty who taught and encouraged me.
Across India the question of Caste and its funtion is debated and discussed in various fields, at present let us focus on academics and political arena. Therefore let us understand Caste in the present issue (in the context of English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad). The Indian government had introduced the reservation policy for those who are socially and economically backwardness, the backwardness was debated and discussed. The backwardness is still debated in the educational and other various arenas. It is every important to see on what level those issues are debated, either in bookish or in practical. Before let us see where do the backward students come from?
The majority of the Indian population dwells in the rural population, without schools and sometimes without even electricity. They live under poverty. It becomes an imagination for the partents to admit their sons in english medium. Some times even the sons/daughters go to work to support their family. There are students who go to school for the mid day meal. These are very little problems they face in their every day life. Still students explore in their studies.
To imporve the backwardness the Indian government introduced Government schools in across every state. Every person knows the conditions of those schools. In fact those are schools for name sake in rural areas, where there are no faculties even and in certain places there are no proper buildings to hold classes, when it rains or during the hot sun. Even the facuties will be irrruegular, I still remember a faculty who will be drunk in class (Government Hight School, Kotagiri),
Those people who get educated and come to a higher position also fails in addressing these primary and long term issues. There are still good number of population do not even go to the schools. It lies due to the lack of visibility from the governmental pro gramme to educate or to reform the academic atmosphere. Most students from rural areas are the first generation. Yes, it is surprising that they are first generation even after 60 years of Independence. The surprise does not stop here, because there are crores of people who are not availing this education also still. (Let us ask ourselves. How many Bhangis, mehtars, pakis, sakkiliyars, or any student from Scavenging background? When you count you may get a shocking result.)
It is as important to discuss or see even how their atmosphere is in back home, which is an alienated from their studies. However, still people explore in the results and at recent times there are people who come under open category. It may arise a question immediately, why there are people who do not explore as the others who do. The answer should be directed towards ourselves, why in general category there are people who fail?. Therefore the success of some students cannot be compared or be a deciding factor of the system or the teachers involved in teaching. Even faculty knew that there are different students coming from different background, socially, regionally, economically, to study. The teachers should know that the students coming from such a deprived background is not an optional of their choice. If the teacher is aware of such a background or the history of their backwardness, then the teacher will pay special attention and encourage such students in class. The encouraging happens but at what level, just at the level of comedy (monetary help and providing books) or with sincerity in educating them. Even the success of any teacher lies not at the level of students who are already ‘forward’ in their education but rather those who educate students from the scratch. How many students did this university produce? However, there is a limit even in the involvement of faculty is concerned, which I am aware of. And I am speaking in the level of their involvement not on their limitation above the sky. There are rules framed or governed by the administration to make sure the students involvement in the academics too. I am speaking of those students whose academical involvement was fulfilled, such as their attendance and giving their internal exams.
Every teachers who teach would have knew that certain students are not going to qualify. Before going further I even like to say there can be occasions where students are forced not to qualify in their exams. In the first case the teachers should have involved to teach her and made sure she is prepared to face the exam.
Let us take the statistics of the present exams result. There are many students who are failed. Cant we see some similarity among all those who failed the exam. If we think that they do not study well then I suppose we have to go and read the injustice done to those people historically and get back to read the rest of the article. The similarity is Caste in large.
The Face of Discrimination on Caste lines
According to the Supreme Court order, said students who failed in three subjects should be given a chance and promoted to the next semester. Though the order was these in favour of the students one department was reluctant to follow, and showed the University rules where the students cannot be permitted. The teacher even said if I have the power to allow them in class I would be the first person to do so. Therefore it was said that the faculty will allow if only VC, the supreme authority to decide, involves by permitting them to allow in class. Then came the shock when VC wrote to the faculty to allow, the faculty replied she might resign rather allowing the student in the class. This is where the social context interfere to make us understand the reason for the faculty not involving the students to the class. The faculty is from the Upper Caste and this is the third time the same teacher shows such a discrimination to students who are socially backward. Is this the behavior of the teacher to show such a discrimination towards students who are socially backward? However, I would like to say at this instance that it is not all faculties are treating socially backward students like this. There are many faculties who treat all students equally and educate them. As a result here I am writing because of a faculty who taught and encouraged me.
Friday, January 29, 2010
appeal to end caste discrimination in EFL University, Hyderabad
One fine day, the second day of the semester, Prof. Meenakshi Reddy, the dean of the German studies enters into the third semester class and asks two of the students (OBC) to leave the class on the basis that they have failed in two subjects in the examination of the previous semester. And then she asks two other students(SC/ST) to leave the class by saying that “you might have understood, what I said.” One of the two students asked her to expalin why students who did not take the exams are allowed to sit(today when we were discussing she said that VC asked her orally to accept them to sit in the 4th semester class), and we are asked to get out of the class? She replied that is a different case and yours is a different case. Therefore these 4 students went to VC's office, where he asked them to wait till monday. (5days). On Monday the students went to VC. He said Meenakshi Reddy has taken a decision and therefore you go to her she will tell you what to do. When the students approached Meenakshi Reddy, she said whomever failed should sit in the second semester and will not be allowed to sit in the fourth semester. The students requested/begged her to allow them to sit. She told them that they are not able to cope with the course therefore under her custodianship she can allow them to stay in the hostel and audit the second semester course without any scholarship. The students cried and begged to not do this because they are coming from a humbe backgroud and cannot afford to repeat a year. Her reply was that she can't help it because she is not the authority to decide. The students again went to the VC, and he asked the students to go to Meenakshi Reddy and that he will himself speak to her. The same day they went again to Prof.Meenakshi Reddy. She said she cannot do anything and repeated that she can allow them to sit in the 2nd semester. It was late by then, and the next day they went to VC again and he said he has written a letter to German department asking them to allow the students. When the students went there she said “If Chindambaram (Home Minister) or your Chief Minister of your state asks me to allow also, I cant allow”, and said further that in case such situation arises she might resign rather admitting these students to the class( this was told in the class too). (Later we came to know that she has given a resignation to the VC that if she is asked she would resign) The students asked the department that whether they received the letter and they replied in the negative. We went to Controller of Examination to confirm whether VC's decision has reached them. He said he has already forwarded it to the Department. The studentse went to VC again and he said he cannot do anything, and that he has done whatever he could. This was happening for one week. There was a week end and on monday one of the students attempted suicide in the near by Seetafal mandi railway station. Fortunately she was saved, this was reported in all news channels. Then we went to VC shockingly he called her on mobile and asked to allow them. Then they were allowed.
After this incident the two SC/ST students were been approached by various other faculty and students asking them why did they do this. They all was of the opinion that Meenakshi Reddy is a nice woman in the class.
Meenakshi Reddy had a prior history of caste based discrimination. In 2008 she, in her position as the Head of the Department, had converted the SC/ST reserved seats in the German Certificate of Proficiency Course to General Category. Further she has a history of being rude to SC/ST students approaching her for various reasons.
Later, we some Dalit students went to VC asking an explanation and to seek her resignation for showing discrimination against the students. He begged every one asking not to do any thing as such. He even said that he went to each students who were active in the university room asking them to be flexible in this issue. However, some students felt such discrimination should not be overlooked. Today (29-01-10) we went to ask to assure that such kind of discrimination will not happen in the future. She messaged a group of students and called some faculties. Thereupon some faculty members came into her room and started speaking on her behalf. We demanded that we need to hear the reassurance from Meenakshi Reddy's mouth. However, she consistently refused even though Prof.Rajagopal himself told her the same. From 11am to 1pm, Meenakshi Reddy was adamant that she would word any such reassurance. Then, some 30 students from the BA German barged in and pointing fingers at the students in the chamber, said “we don't know who you are. You have no business to be here. Come out and talk to us and we will show you”. Following this, they pulled the collar of one of the Dalit research scholars present there. We said that we are here to talk to Meenakshi Reddy.
The issue then ended in a scuffle and the administration can now rejoice that they have succesfully silenced the Dalit and other depressed class students by turning a chunk of students against them. Though the Dalit students then sat demanding justice in front of VC's chamber for the next four hours, the VC was adamant that he would not speak to them. Moreover, on his way to the chamber, he also termed it a “non-issue”.
We request all of you readers to react to this issue. Please mobilize whatever resources you can command to react to this discrimination.
Also, the following is a letter we had drafted to present before the administration, which was however thwarted in the course of the day.
The flow of the incident.
Those students failed in two subject have got a very less GPA. However, In recent case the supreme court said students from reserved backgroud should be given a chance. This was given in the earlier semesters, where students failed in 3 subject were allowed to take the next semester.
It is not that only in german department students failed. Students were failed in most other department too but they were allowed on the same day of re-opening.
There were students who did not take the exams but they were allowed to sit in the same German department.
What it really meant when she said that “If Chindambaram (Home Minister) or your Chief Minister of your state asks me to allow also, I cant allow”.
LETTER
The recent incident of a particular female student of II yr Foreign Languages attempting suicide has brought into focus several issues which were hitherto hidden but have now surfaced. Let us recount them:
1)The idea of merit based on a uniform scale:
The reasons which led to the above mentioned incident are as follows: The student had failed in her third semester examination. Following which, the German Department was insistent on not permitting her to continue into the next semester, though similar incidents in every other foreign language department were condoned. In the discussions which followed, the idea of “German efficiency” is constantly being referred to. This is a very convenient argument that at the same time conceals the undemocratic nature of the educational system of the country as a whole, and on the other hand projects this “efficiency” as an ideal to look up to.
The reality is very different though. Firstly, one must agree that the student is a student by virtue of his/her having cleared a set of requirements which include an entrance examination. Therefore, the merit of the said student is also unquestionable. The question then is, “how is that a student who has cleared the entrance examination and (in this particular case, though not necessarily in every case) has cleared her first year examinations, fails to live up to the standards of the university?” The commonsensical answer is that these students belong (as empirically proven in our university) to the Reserved Categories. This answer is often whispered, and never spoken aloud in any open forum. This in itself constitutes a violence, because it denies the option of a discussion and thereby violates the right of the accused (of meritlessness) to defend him/herself.
Once we agree that most of the failed students are from the Reserved Category, it is easy for accusers to say that these students have entered the university only by the merit of fixed seat numbers reserved for them, irrespective of what marks they get. This in itself constitutes an already assumed inferior position of the students. One should then remember that this reservation system contributes to making our nation a truly democratic setup. The reservation system is based on historical truths, that of deprivation and of denied access to public resources which a certain section of the country's population has been historically subjected to. Therefore, the very idea of reservation is based on providing a level ground of competition.
By implementing reservation, the university agrees to the above in theory. But what should we understand from the fact that a student granted admission on these grounds has failed in subsequent exams? It means that in practice, in everyday academic life, the university does not follow the spirit of the Constitution. The very fact that Reserved Category students constitute the chunk of “failures” underscores the fact that, in practice, the reservation policy is violated. To put reservation into practice one should then have a real-egalitarian measure in the case of examination also. This would involve evolving criteria for measurement which takes into account factors like the initial profile of the student matched against the subsequent performances in percentage, a radical refashioning of the syllabus as per the real-life needs and cultural life-worlds of the students, eradication of merit based on examination marks and a juxtaposition of mark vs. background in its stead, abolishing of “failed” category, etc. Once the category of “failed” is abolished, students will be able to continue through the course at a single stretch, while they should also be given the provision of grade improvement exams atleast once in each semester.
By evoking a law uniform to all sections of the society, heedless of their historical backgrounds, by sticking to the letter of law and not its spirit, by treating such failed students in a manner which will humiliate them, which will bring upon self-harming responses from them, the university has failed to live up to the historical compensation which the state promises its depressed citizens.
It should be noted here that those who are invoking law against these students are forgetting their duty, again enjoined by law and reiterated by the Supreme Court in relation to the failed students case in Delhi IIT, that the centre of learning has a constitutional responsibility to ensure that the Reserved Category students are at par with the General Category students. This in effect means that providing equal opportunity is not a gesture of equality but a perpetuation of existing inequalities. What we want is a radical transformation of the idea of merit itself.
On the other hand, a teacher training in this country should correspond to the post-Mandal realities where education has ceased to be the privileged possession of a few. They should take into consideration that a newer demography of students has entered this campus and instead of looking down on them, the university should realize the potential that these students from diverse backgrounds have to offer, if catered to sensitively. These students, hailing from life-worlds hitherto kept off bounds of university, has to offer the society novel ways of p[erception which can revolutionize our very procedures of knowledge formations. It will be a historical blunder and failure on the part of the university if it fails to acknowledge and make use of this variegated experiences of these students and subject them to the obsolete, wornout and fetishized academic practices.
2)The university as family and whimsical justice:
The university administration constantly evokes the idea of students as siblings and the faculty as their parents. This idea in itself is a mask which hides the diverse backgrounds that the students come from, and installs in its place the idea of an imagined equality where each person, regardless of his background, can achieve things equally. This imagination then conceals the real-life hurdles of a large section of students. This is another way of saying that because the university provides the same facility to everyone, they should have the same potential. This leaves out the fact that there are real differences among the students -rural/urban, english medium/regional medium, had TV at home/couldn't afford, had time to have a hobby/had to be a helping hand in the family... In other words, it is saying that we enter the university without memories, like a clean slate -which we did not.
The flip side to this same argument is that the teachers are equal to our parents who can render justice. It is no wonder then that in many cases the university resorts to a method of justice by whims.
Let us take this specific case. All the other departments in the Foreign Languages except the German department allowed the failed students to continue. How is it possible that the university works on such informal arrangement where one unsympathetic faculty member has such enormous control over the fate of the students? The answer is, the university has to formulate a clear cut rule regarding failed students, which nevertheless takes into account the diverse background of the students.
Is there a contradiction between this and point no.1? No. What we demand is a set of democratic ules rather than an option of”sympathetic” interpretation of rules, or a case of sympathetic non-implementation of rules. One should consider such conditions of life that prevail in many of the students from depressed classes which do not allow them the luxury of losing a year and coming back in the next. Instead, we should have a system of automatic entry into the next semester wherein the students can reappear for those subjects in which they have failed even while they continue pursuing their course.
3)Majoritarianism:
While a teacher's aim is to improve and educate the maximum number of students, there is nothing desirable in it if this comes at the price of a depressed minority. The depressed minority here is the Reserved Category. It has come to our notice that some teachers conduct their classes in certain regional languages (no matter how predominant that language is in the national imagination). his is a violation of the very criteria of entry into the university which conducts its entrance examination in English. While we agree that this measure might be useful for the majority of students, it comes with the price of alienating and being unreachable for a section of students who have historically no access, or due to historical political factors, even an unconscious aloofness, to this particular regional language.
4)The importance of “feelings”
The current procedure of teacher assessment in our university is based on a set of objective scores which do not leave scope for the feelings of the students. The teacher assesment need to be revamped to take into consideration those aspects regarding a teacher, his/her teaching and the holistic academic experience that cannot just be expressed in numbers. And equally important is that the assessment should have real implication for the teacher rather than an informal reprimand (at its best). There should be an option to fail the teacher, just as a student can be failed.
In the light of these facts, we demand the following:
1)The University should reach out to the depressed sections of students and reassure them a real-egalitarian treatment in terms of education and way of life within the campus. We believe that an apology tendered to the concerned students is the least and the essential beginning to this process.
2)Remedial training for teachers to enable them to sensitively deal with students of diverse backgrounds. A revamped teacher assessment structure that can take into account the student emotions rather than just “objective judgement”, and an option to fail the teacher.
3) The medium of education should be limited to the specific foreign language being taught , and/or English.
4)The abolishing of failed category, a point-based system which takes into account background; and a stage by stage profiling of student performance in all exams, extracurricular activities which include sports, volunteer activities for various university activities including involvement in political activities; a flagging of the topic based on the relevance to historical situations and division of marks in a subject for the various topics based on this flagging, a minimum of 50% of marks to be allotted to topics which can be related to by the students according to the varied lifeworlds.
After this incident the two SC/ST students were been approached by various other faculty and students asking them why did they do this. They all was of the opinion that Meenakshi Reddy is a nice woman in the class.
Meenakshi Reddy had a prior history of caste based discrimination. In 2008 she, in her position as the Head of the Department, had converted the SC/ST reserved seats in the German Certificate of Proficiency Course to General Category. Further she has a history of being rude to SC/ST students approaching her for various reasons.
Later, we some Dalit students went to VC asking an explanation and to seek her resignation for showing discrimination against the students. He begged every one asking not to do any thing as such. He even said that he went to each students who were active in the university room asking them to be flexible in this issue. However, some students felt such discrimination should not be overlooked. Today (29-01-10) we went to ask to assure that such kind of discrimination will not happen in the future. She messaged a group of students and called some faculties. Thereupon some faculty members came into her room and started speaking on her behalf. We demanded that we need to hear the reassurance from Meenakshi Reddy's mouth. However, she consistently refused even though Prof.Rajagopal himself told her the same. From 11am to 1pm, Meenakshi Reddy was adamant that she would word any such reassurance. Then, some 30 students from the BA German barged in and pointing fingers at the students in the chamber, said “we don't know who you are. You have no business to be here. Come out and talk to us and we will show you”. Following this, they pulled the collar of one of the Dalit research scholars present there. We said that we are here to talk to Meenakshi Reddy.
The issue then ended in a scuffle and the administration can now rejoice that they have succesfully silenced the Dalit and other depressed class students by turning a chunk of students against them. Though the Dalit students then sat demanding justice in front of VC's chamber for the next four hours, the VC was adamant that he would not speak to them. Moreover, on his way to the chamber, he also termed it a “non-issue”.
We request all of you readers to react to this issue. Please mobilize whatever resources you can command to react to this discrimination.
Also, the following is a letter we had drafted to present before the administration, which was however thwarted in the course of the day.
The flow of the incident.
Those students failed in two subject have got a very less GPA. However, In recent case the supreme court said students from reserved backgroud should be given a chance. This was given in the earlier semesters, where students failed in 3 subject were allowed to take the next semester.
It is not that only in german department students failed. Students were failed in most other department too but they were allowed on the same day of re-opening.
There were students who did not take the exams but they were allowed to sit in the same German department.
What it really meant when she said that “If Chindambaram (Home Minister) or your Chief Minister of your state asks me to allow also, I cant allow”.
LETTER
The recent incident of a particular female student of II yr Foreign Languages attempting suicide has brought into focus several issues which were hitherto hidden but have now surfaced. Let us recount them:
1)The idea of merit based on a uniform scale:
The reasons which led to the above mentioned incident are as follows: The student had failed in her third semester examination. Following which, the German Department was insistent on not permitting her to continue into the next semester, though similar incidents in every other foreign language department were condoned. In the discussions which followed, the idea of “German efficiency” is constantly being referred to. This is a very convenient argument that at the same time conceals the undemocratic nature of the educational system of the country as a whole, and on the other hand projects this “efficiency” as an ideal to look up to.
The reality is very different though. Firstly, one must agree that the student is a student by virtue of his/her having cleared a set of requirements which include an entrance examination. Therefore, the merit of the said student is also unquestionable. The question then is, “how is that a student who has cleared the entrance examination and (in this particular case, though not necessarily in every case) has cleared her first year examinations, fails to live up to the standards of the university?” The commonsensical answer is that these students belong (as empirically proven in our university) to the Reserved Categories. This answer is often whispered, and never spoken aloud in any open forum. This in itself constitutes a violence, because it denies the option of a discussion and thereby violates the right of the accused (of meritlessness) to defend him/herself.
Once we agree that most of the failed students are from the Reserved Category, it is easy for accusers to say that these students have entered the university only by the merit of fixed seat numbers reserved for them, irrespective of what marks they get. This in itself constitutes an already assumed inferior position of the students. One should then remember that this reservation system contributes to making our nation a truly democratic setup. The reservation system is based on historical truths, that of deprivation and of denied access to public resources which a certain section of the country's population has been historically subjected to. Therefore, the very idea of reservation is based on providing a level ground of competition.
By implementing reservation, the university agrees to the above in theory. But what should we understand from the fact that a student granted admission on these grounds has failed in subsequent exams? It means that in practice, in everyday academic life, the university does not follow the spirit of the Constitution. The very fact that Reserved Category students constitute the chunk of “failures” underscores the fact that, in practice, the reservation policy is violated. To put reservation into practice one should then have a real-egalitarian measure in the case of examination also. This would involve evolving criteria for measurement which takes into account factors like the initial profile of the student matched against the subsequent performances in percentage, a radical refashioning of the syllabus as per the real-life needs and cultural life-worlds of the students, eradication of merit based on examination marks and a juxtaposition of mark vs. background in its stead, abolishing of “failed” category, etc. Once the category of “failed” is abolished, students will be able to continue through the course at a single stretch, while they should also be given the provision of grade improvement exams atleast once in each semester.
By evoking a law uniform to all sections of the society, heedless of their historical backgrounds, by sticking to the letter of law and not its spirit, by treating such failed students in a manner which will humiliate them, which will bring upon self-harming responses from them, the university has failed to live up to the historical compensation which the state promises its depressed citizens.
It should be noted here that those who are invoking law against these students are forgetting their duty, again enjoined by law and reiterated by the Supreme Court in relation to the failed students case in Delhi IIT, that the centre of learning has a constitutional responsibility to ensure that the Reserved Category students are at par with the General Category students. This in effect means that providing equal opportunity is not a gesture of equality but a perpetuation of existing inequalities. What we want is a radical transformation of the idea of merit itself.
On the other hand, a teacher training in this country should correspond to the post-Mandal realities where education has ceased to be the privileged possession of a few. They should take into consideration that a newer demography of students has entered this campus and instead of looking down on them, the university should realize the potential that these students from diverse backgrounds have to offer, if catered to sensitively. These students, hailing from life-worlds hitherto kept off bounds of university, has to offer the society novel ways of p[erception which can revolutionize our very procedures of knowledge formations. It will be a historical blunder and failure on the part of the university if it fails to acknowledge and make use of this variegated experiences of these students and subject them to the obsolete, wornout and fetishized academic practices.
2)The university as family and whimsical justice:
The university administration constantly evokes the idea of students as siblings and the faculty as their parents. This idea in itself is a mask which hides the diverse backgrounds that the students come from, and installs in its place the idea of an imagined equality where each person, regardless of his background, can achieve things equally. This imagination then conceals the real-life hurdles of a large section of students. This is another way of saying that because the university provides the same facility to everyone, they should have the same potential. This leaves out the fact that there are real differences among the students -rural/urban, english medium/regional medium, had TV at home/couldn't afford, had time to have a hobby/had to be a helping hand in the family... In other words, it is saying that we enter the university without memories, like a clean slate -which we did not.
The flip side to this same argument is that the teachers are equal to our parents who can render justice. It is no wonder then that in many cases the university resorts to a method of justice by whims.
Let us take this specific case. All the other departments in the Foreign Languages except the German department allowed the failed students to continue. How is it possible that the university works on such informal arrangement where one unsympathetic faculty member has such enormous control over the fate of the students? The answer is, the university has to formulate a clear cut rule regarding failed students, which nevertheless takes into account the diverse background of the students.
Is there a contradiction between this and point no.1? No. What we demand is a set of democratic ules rather than an option of”sympathetic” interpretation of rules, or a case of sympathetic non-implementation of rules. One should consider such conditions of life that prevail in many of the students from depressed classes which do not allow them the luxury of losing a year and coming back in the next. Instead, we should have a system of automatic entry into the next semester wherein the students can reappear for those subjects in which they have failed even while they continue pursuing their course.
3)Majoritarianism:
While a teacher's aim is to improve and educate the maximum number of students, there is nothing desirable in it if this comes at the price of a depressed minority. The depressed minority here is the Reserved Category. It has come to our notice that some teachers conduct their classes in certain regional languages (no matter how predominant that language is in the national imagination). his is a violation of the very criteria of entry into the university which conducts its entrance examination in English. While we agree that this measure might be useful for the majority of students, it comes with the price of alienating and being unreachable for a section of students who have historically no access, or due to historical political factors, even an unconscious aloofness, to this particular regional language.
4)The importance of “feelings”
The current procedure of teacher assessment in our university is based on a set of objective scores which do not leave scope for the feelings of the students. The teacher assesment need to be revamped to take into consideration those aspects regarding a teacher, his/her teaching and the holistic academic experience that cannot just be expressed in numbers. And equally important is that the assessment should have real implication for the teacher rather than an informal reprimand (at its best). There should be an option to fail the teacher, just as a student can be failed.
In the light of these facts, we demand the following:
1)The University should reach out to the depressed sections of students and reassure them a real-egalitarian treatment in terms of education and way of life within the campus. We believe that an apology tendered to the concerned students is the least and the essential beginning to this process.
2)Remedial training for teachers to enable them to sensitively deal with students of diverse backgrounds. A revamped teacher assessment structure that can take into account the student emotions rather than just “objective judgement”, and an option to fail the teacher.
3) The medium of education should be limited to the specific foreign language being taught , and/or English.
4)The abolishing of failed category, a point-based system which takes into account background; and a stage by stage profiling of student performance in all exams, extracurricular activities which include sports, volunteer activities for various university activities including involvement in political activities; a flagging of the topic based on the relevance to historical situations and division of marks in a subject for the various topics based on this flagging, a minimum of 50% of marks to be allotted to topics which can be related to by the students according to the varied lifeworlds.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
PERISHING DEMOCRACY, FLOWERING HYPOCRISY
The word meant an alternation for other modes of Government. And in practical democracy is better than any other modes of Government. Still did Democracy do justice for the whole population. When does the wordy democracy comes into our thought? it usually comes during the local and central election time. How is this difference with other forms of Government? let us take the Dictatorship government, where one person rules the other. According to the understanding of the meaning of Democracy, it means that people rule the country, which is a false understanding. Even if we have to go with the last statement, the literal meaning of democracy is not there, rather the 'Dictatorship' is changed into 'democracy' term were people accept one mans rule and do not have any option. what is happening in Indian government, with the Telengana issue, the majority of the Telenaga population wants a seprate state, same with north east wants to be seprated, Tamil in sri lanka wants to be seprated. To the above demand how does the government react to such issues. one way of reacting is through state sponsored violence, through Rapid Action Force, Parlimentary Force, Central Reserve Force, etc. We have to see these action forces are created by the democratical government to enforce on the general public. In otherway to see, whenever there is a mass movement rising the first this the government will ask the intellingence to check who are those people and putting them in custody with full toarcher. Utleast in India do we have democararcy if we have are we allowed to speak against the government or the state. Even it surprises that the democractic government do not alow the press to function.
Therefore at present the word democracy has leading towards the Dictatorship ruling.
Therefore at present the word democracy has leading towards the Dictatorship ruling.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Something always surprises me
The name Hitler reflects various things in our imagination, one of those images is that a gruesome dictator ruthlessly killed jews. as a result we decide upon saying that Hitler is an example of how a leader should not be, and how a ruler should not treated his own people?. These all led from his gruesome approach during his rule. yes, its all true.
But i wonder during his whole regime there where people who complained to the Pope(who was closely associated with Germany) about his activities, were the Pope turned to be a mere spectators. And during the world war second there were countries allies with Germany, which means that they too accepted him, it is the fact that all the developing nation during that period of time knew his way of approach. Apart from this, His gruesome behavior came to light after his defeat in the world war. Before this there were no alarm raised by any country or people against his behaviors. Hitler was not an superman to lead all his crimes under every ones eyes. Therefore he was not a individual to be blamed as "Hitler", rather the whole world especially the near observers where to be blamed, May be the Americans and the Pope of Rome. First before reading this further, let us ask a question why there were no anymore "Hitlers" after Germany's defeat. Hence, what is the qualification to make or compare with the German dictator. Is that the numbers were out numbered in his genocide killing.
What so ever I see many Hitlers across the world alive. Let us see some of the recent incidents below for consideration.
What Happened in the final face of the Sri Lankan war, thousands of civilians were butchered, murdered and raped. Even some Human rights organization says it is a recent Genocide. Was this activities carried alone by Sri Lanka an individual state. The answer is no. Can we call every one involved even by supporting the activities as Hitlers. Then can we call the rulers of the following states as Hitler, India, China, Pakistan, Cuba, Russia, Israel and other countries.
Doesn't the above nations be called as a ruthless government towards civilian population and it is the new approach adopted in the present century to be Hitler is a sophisticated manner(by calling they are democratically elected government)
The Indian Government in the name of eradicating Naxalites they are massacring, and raping innocent Tribal population in States. Further the Indian government in the name of security measures doing the same for decades together in Kashimir and north east. And every politicians and Indian citizines are aware of this.
doesn't the above act of the Indian government qualify to be one of those Hitler regime of the 21st century. In my opinion it is.
What Happened in GAZA, what is happening to the whole Muslim nations and population accross the world.
Given the above atmosphere there are many Hitlers across the world. AND sometimes we ourselves turn to be Hitler.
These facts surprises me but not anylonger.
India is a "Democratic" Country, 26th is to make fool of people
The face of our democracy.
If we all boast that we have achieved in 60 years of under Indian government. Then may be we all belong or in the deep sea of lies spread or created by the ruling Congress, and the opposition Parties of India.
In my view the following were our success....
Let us take a look of the Railway Minister's decision which makes very difficult to book a Tatkal Ticket only in last two days, people start queueing the Railway station before 5.00 a.m in the morning. How can a person from a village reach the destination, where the bus travel starts at 7.00 am and has to travel 20 kilometres? Therefore the lower, and middle class people(who do not have access to transport or internet) who are the majority of the Indian population and suffer the most of such decisions. This awful decision was our success of the Government and we being the mere spectators were our success.
The central i.e the congress government had introduced contractual system. especially Group D employees position to be given to contractual labours. As our Indian government is corrupt how can the government think of handing it over to the Contractors. We all knew that the "Contractors" are better than the Indian state, in harassing men and women. And our so called Communist partes and other labour unions or the Trade Unions of India did not raise a voice over this. Maybe , if the leaders' family or the relatives were working in this field they would have known the "Sweetness" of their job security.
These people basically belong to the SC/ST/OBC and minority of the middle and lower class people. Surprisingly the social movements also neglected the issue.
The government succeeded by making Karnataka High Court Mr. Dinakaran's Issue his personal issue rather than Caste issue. Since our Dalit Activists are busy in Various other issues which includes lobbying for their own personal benefits, they didn't find time to make a Caste issue. And Of Course it is a Caste issue. Why are the Karnataka lawyers so much interested in removing him? If we cant understand or the relavance of this then sure those who call themselves social activists or academicians should hang themselves.
Last, but not the least, our government and we ourselves have reserved the job of manual scavenging and sweeping across India reserved for a particular community
to be continued....
If we all boast that we have achieved in 60 years of under Indian government. Then may be we all belong or in the deep sea of lies spread or created by the ruling Congress, and the opposition Parties of India.
In my view the following were our success....
Let us take a look of the Railway Minister's decision which makes very difficult to book a Tatkal Ticket only in last two days, people start queueing the Railway station before 5.00 a.m in the morning. How can a person from a village reach the destination, where the bus travel starts at 7.00 am and has to travel 20 kilometres? Therefore the lower, and middle class people(who do not have access to transport or internet) who are the majority of the Indian population and suffer the most of such decisions. This awful decision was our success of the Government and we being the mere spectators were our success.
The central i.e the congress government had introduced contractual system. especially Group D employees position to be given to contractual labours. As our Indian government is corrupt how can the government think of handing it over to the Contractors. We all knew that the "Contractors" are better than the Indian state, in harassing men and women. And our so called Communist partes and other labour unions or the Trade Unions of India did not raise a voice over this. Maybe , if the leaders' family or the relatives were working in this field they would have known the "Sweetness" of their job security.
These people basically belong to the SC/ST/OBC and minority of the middle and lower class people. Surprisingly the social movements also neglected the issue.
The government succeeded by making Karnataka High Court Mr. Dinakaran's Issue his personal issue rather than Caste issue. Since our Dalit Activists are busy in Various other issues which includes lobbying for their own personal benefits, they didn't find time to make a Caste issue. And Of Course it is a Caste issue. Why are the Karnataka lawyers so much interested in removing him? If we cant understand or the relavance of this then sure those who call themselves social activists or academicians should hang themselves.
Last, but not the least, our government and we ourselves have reserved the job of manual scavenging and sweeping across India reserved for a particular community
to be continued....
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