Our Academic Woes
By; Uzair Salman
The fact that I’m presently questing after my Master’s degree at one of the departments of University of Peshawar – the only public sector university whose dues unfortunately exceed those of many private sector universities – I had to confront all the stereotypes in the days leading to our final term exam, as to how one ought to be attempting his/her papers, and which books one’s supposed to go through. The one most common thing accentuated was that books written by foreign authors can’t promise you good marks, and only waste your time. As an alternative, students had to adhere to reading books written by local authors wherein the information and content provided, and whose language are very often replete with inaccuracies and deplorable flaws. Astonishingly, the latter was what the students thought, and I bet many still do, could bring them good marks.
What a good student does before taking his exam is that he seeks assistance of those that have passed the same exam that he’s about to take with good grades, and asks them to render him their suggestions. That’s exactly what I did – although I don’t necessarily think of myself as a ‘good student’. The first student – the topper of her class – that I went to seek help of, told me that she didn’t expect to top, nor did she believe that her papers were worth acquiring good marks. I was shocked for a moment, and thought that she must be lying to me as that’s what most students do when they get good grades and are then asked to elucidate the reason why. But then, the suggestions that she gave tongue to, made me realise that she couldn’t be more truthful in what she said when she said that the good grades she had gotten were completely unexpected and unprepared for. Her views were in no ways any different than the ones I’d been confronting on a daily basis before my exam.
Honestly speaking, I too was influenced to some extent owing to what I’d been hearing, much to my surprise. I relinquished, however temporarily, reading books of foreign authors, and set about reading books of local authors only to find out, as I already have put to words in the first paragraph, that they were replete with inaccuracies and deplorable flaws. I need to confess that I will never countenance myself to degrade anybody’s efforts, nor doubt their intentions. But what I’d always encourage myself to carry through is to propagate professionalism and good scholarly work which unfortunately most of the local authors’ books are aloof of.
Then came the days when the students halted talking about which and whose books to read, and commenced discussing the pros of the amount of ‘extra sheets’ one takes. Lachrymosely, I heard many students – whose performance in the class was good enough for me to realise that they’d not be driven away by these woeful stereotypes – say that the more ‘extra sheets’ you take, the more the chances of you getting good marks.
The exam set about, and within less than an hour, students surrounding me in the examination hall would start asking for extra sheets, and each time they would do so, I’d count the blank sheets remaining in the answer sheet, and at times, feel envious of them. I’d continue writing for four hours, making sure that I wrote anything and everything I could, not always paying enough attention to the quality of the content, with my hand paining a whole lot. One has to admire the system though. They ask you to write so much in so little time that in the end, you keep asking yourself; “did I write enough? would I get good marks?” and so on and so forth.
After the end of each paper, the student who had taken the most extra sheets would be approached literally by all, and would be asked to explain for how long did he study, and which books he’d read. He would be hailed as the most intelligent guy, and somebody very likely to top. The rest of us, who’d hardly make it to two extra sheets, would start feeling sorry for ourselves.
Let’s cut the long story short. I don’t really need to go along and explicate what needs to be done as a lot has been said and put forth apropos this. The reason why I thought it a prerequisite to share my experiences is that I can’t help but be woebegone and sorrowful when I see the youth of this country – a lion’s share of this country’s population – or at least of my university, indulge in activities and believe in ideas that can yield nothing but unprofessionalism and eventually, destruction. It’s about time that those who hold offices in universities and whose influence has been recognised, take upon themselves the responsibility of educating the students and letting them know as to what’s more important, and what less, and what can ensure them good marks. Be that as it may, those that mark students’ papers should also stop weighing the papers and counting the extra sheets, as most of them allegedly do, and start paying attention to the quality of the content brought about by the students no matter how little in quantity that might be.
Uzair Salman is a student of Political Science.
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