I always pack the pocket of my mind with a bevy of frequently asked questions about education, health and so on. When I feel the pocket has overloaded, I take a stab at unloading its burden. To do it, I chance upon students and teachers to inquire about the state of their university in general. The first ever inquiry which I pursue is always about the opinions of people about their university, generally speaking.
Let’s move to the inquiry that is boiled down to students only. It is: how do you feel being a student of your university? The rejoinder to this phenomenal query is dangerously shocking; however it is doubtlessly an attention-grabbing point to ponder.
some teachers pressurize students to do their personal works ranging from teaching in their place, assessing the bulk of answer copies and assignments, crafting the question papers and so on (the string of such unjust things is extremely lengthy). If students refuse, they would indubitably be put in hell– their career would run into destruction; history is badly fraught with suicides and mental disorder-related cases. For suicides, cases mostly appear on the post-graduation level– PhD and MPhil
Almost all students come out dejected from academic and administrative parts of their university. Upon asking what they see inside these two parts, they come down like a ton of bricks upon their university, christening it a place of bureaucracy since the concept of bureaucracy is extremely practical over there.
For long, bureaucracy has taken lots of forms. On the onset, it was a top-down mechanism, and the top of which was in the hands of administrators and policy makers who imposed their wills on those at the bottom (teachers, students, communities, and parents). This is what the bureaucracy is in actual manner. In the parenthesis, however, four players at the bottom of the bureaucratic system seem to have been brought in. From these four players, teachers have now escaped, in the context of universities, to join the top of bureaucratic structure. It is seriously sad to note here that the bureaucracy has shifted to the universities’ premises.
For people, it offers a luxurious lifestyle through which the raspy attitude reflects the most. However, these two parts work like two arms of a man do. At this instant, teachers in universities have turned bureaucrats, students say. Amongst all, teachers of higher ranks mostly wrap themselves in the bureaucratic garb. However, bureaucracy prevails in postgraduate studies at full throttle. What exactly I am trying to say here is that the bureaucracy is not particularly laid on the beds of those at the lower ranks, it is placed under the pillow of those at the higher ranks!
Whatsoever the bureaucrats in Pakistani society do, is now in the styles of teachers of the focused ranks.
Like bureaucrats, teachers are not technically easy for students to meet and to hear their severe issues that they are perilously facing. Teachers fix notices on their office doors which state their consultancy time; is this not a bureaucratic style? I fail to understand this bureaucratic behavior technically as to what responsibility the teachers have to be available for hours at their office. Sometimes, it is not the teachers behaving like bureaucrats. It is the universities which are designed on the bureaucratic standard or mechanism where teachers are expected to behave like this in a necessary manner.
Most of such universities are either running like private entities or they are owned privately. In such universities, teachers are bureaucrats and students are their products. But this ball also falls in public universities where rule-bound roles are performed.
Now the present column is totally based on inquiry, let’s touch again the complaints which I receive from students in response to my FAQs. Upon asking why teachers behave like bureaucrats, most of the students zip their lips; some argue that the teachers are left bereft of community sense. Aligned with it, the sense of community among teachers can undoubtedly help.
For long, teachers have fallen victim to this luxurious sickness which is killing them fast. However, they should tackle the challenge to destroy this sick perception to change the course of education. They should announce the vacant rooms for students to learn without any interruption, since they are recruited to be available to serve their students.
It has come to light that some teachers pressurize students to do their personal works ranging from teaching in their place, assessing the bulk of answer copies and assignments, crafting the question papers and so on (the string of such unjust things is extremely lengthy). If students refuse, they would indubitably be put in hell– their career would run into destruction; history is badly fraught with suicides and mental disorder-related cases. For suicides, cases mostly appear on the post-graduation level– PhD and MPhil.
At any point, if a student happens to have done something wrong, he or she is frequently pushed back in a severe manner. Some teachers, students tell more frequently, even turn dangerously personal towards their students in most of the cases. Such cases bring in questioning in the class, not greeting, not submitting assignments timely but unwillingly, and sometimes teachers get extremely anguished towards students right after they receive from them any phone call or message. This all injects fear among students’ minds.
People reading this are now giggling on, as I am portraying teachers more than they try to wrap themselves in the bureaucratic garb. Don’t you chortle? I think you are completely tired of chronic laughter which might have pushed your jaws to every nook and corner. Stop laughing now, since I have mocked people for the serious concern which you have gone through. Think about it.
