Student Special by Ehsaan Yousf
The stagnation we used to witness during the whole course of the bachelors programme at the under graduate level was nothing short of a perpetual torture. Dynamism, activity, learning, regular class work were almost non-existent and all we had to do was a rigorous study of one month, exams for one month and no productive and creative task to go on with for the rest ten months a year.
Both semester and the Credit Based Choice System as a policy reform in education came as a ray of hope to all the seekers and observers of education system and especially as a thread for the well being of the long run development of the student’s academic base and knowledge. The whole framework saw a revision. The syllabus was holistically changed, modified and advanced. Student’s participation grew and above all the college attendance and working rose dramatically. This opened doors for co-circulars and other activities like debating clubs, drama clubs, skill development courses etc.
As fate and my write-ups have it; the children of conflict zone come up with different set of problems. The torments of peacelessness and the circumstances of 2016 hung us all alone and the degrees we were undergoing were withheld in action and exams were held around half a year in delay. Certainly the lag is pulling along and the deficit needs to be filled somehow viz. a serious and active policy intervention.
Given this loss and other related problems, many educationists are coming up with a solution (that in no way is a solution) of scrapping the semester system all together. Thus returning to the debris of annual system with the way to stagnation and no-learning-no-doing system.
The result never is a direct outcome of the decision itself rather it is the making of the actions over the said decisions and their success in attainment. While the rest of the world is moving ahead we necessarily can’t go backwards. Surrender never is an option until it is Khalil Gibran asking one to be a mystic in the love for divinity.
We are all the products of one conflict ridden area and our progress is like the lotus in its abode. We all rose from instability to the highest levels of attainment and achievements. Instead of giving up on dynamism and surrendering to stagnation we should rather be determined and detrimental to climb up the ladder and compete the competitors across the globe.
There are certain pathways we need to correct for a steady walk through the whole of the journey of bachelors level. Currently it’s the university that continues to administer the exams and other conducts of the colleges. It is but obvious a fact that higher the centralization of decision making the more delayed the implementations are. For that matter it is very much feasible to give college’s certain degree of autonomy so thay they as per the completion of their course work can conduct exams etc.
Winters and summers are two opposite equations for us and different arrangements are needed. College’s have been, they are and they will continue in their steady pace to keep on investing on infrastructure. The fact of the matter is that we live not only in a third world country but also in a conflict zone. Things do not come easily to the people of this birth and the only thing left worth doing is to coperate and manage. We cant stop studying and going out only because it is cold outside. A confrontation of, “Do or Does reached one to go with the former.
Raising issues like teacher productivity and load ain’t a thing of real. What is semester system? The breaking of three annual exams into six sessions. Up until the arrival of the semester system, hardly one paper of each subject was completed in the class and now the system is such that there is no option but to take up each and every paper. Come what may, this is healthy both for the teachers as well as students.
There is high student involvement viz. this system and is no longer a one person affair. Education has just stated to be holistic at the +3 level and there is no sense to nib this wonderful bud in infancy itself. Once the system is in place everyone has no other option but to adapt to the change. Adaptation never is easy neither fast but with time it does materialize and bitter roots eventually come up with sweet fruits one day.
Thus instead of pressing for demands like scrapping off a fine system and calling something really obsolete back into picture, it is better that we give ourselves some positive inconvenience and help place a good system in a good mould to end up with a fine piece of human resource creation.
