| Saaket Unadkat – Blog

Na Ghar Ka Na Ghat Ka

// August 21st, 2008 // Mumbai University

The above lines may sound ridiculous to some, but these and many more such lines add laughter to the lives of the otherwise suffering Mumbai University engineering students. The saga of suffering continues this year as well with almost 15,500 of the 17,500 having failed in the first year (second semester) examination. Without being partial to the students, it may be noticed that an average engineering student has scored a minimum of 80% marks in his 12th standard examination. (The exceptions being the bade baap ka betas who make it to engineering colleges on the baap ki mehnat ki kamai and end up drop-outs). Then how is it these engg. students fail? The argument that students don’t study regularly is unacceptable, as a student who has scored 80% or 90% marks need not be told WHEN and HOW to study. So who is to blame?

THE UNIVERSITY
I)The term for the engineering students is supposed to start June end but more often than not you won’t even find a kutta on the college campus before the 15th August. Colleges start 11/2 months behind schedule courtesy late admission, court stays, medical entrance and so on. It’s already August and the students are expected to appear for the exams in the first week of December. Just two months to go and the students are expected to complete the following before the examinations -
a) Practicals for a minimum of five subjects along with getting his/her journals certified from the teacher-in-charge.
B) At least three assignments for every subject and submit them within a stipulated time.
Assignments are just a set of questions a student is supposed to answer on A-4 sheets. The number of questions varies from prof to prof but on most occasions the number is reasonably high. Only a few kitabi keedas of the class solve them and the other chhapari crowd maro nakal. So it is not surprising to see engg. students writing in trains, BEST buses, restaurants etc. By the way have you ever travelled by the morning 7:27 Andheri-Belapur local? If not, travel at least once just to see students scribbling out their assignments – taking support on anything they can find.
c) A series of crash courses. Yes, a student has to attend coaching classes etc. to prepare for the ordeal ahead as most colleges are lagging behind or their faculties are below par.
—————————
2) The timetable for the examination is NEVER fixed. Incredible as this may sound, exams get postponed a day before they are supposed to start! Worst case scenario – the exams getting preponed!
—————————
3) Nobody in Mumbai Univ knows what the exact syllabus is for a particular subject of a particular branch. Students blindly follow the notes circulated by coaching classes or those given by seniors.
————————–
4) Usually students barely get any preparation leave. And there is very little or at times no gap between the KT and the regular exams
————————–
5) Another nonsense department is the Exam Cell of the University. Flunked your exam? Given your paper for reval? Well, 100% chances are you receive your revaluation/ reverification results AFTER you have given your KT. Even in today’s high-tech zamana the University depends on apna postal department. The question here is that when a student pays as much as 600 rupees for reverification of a single paper, the University can well afford a courier service.
—————————
6) The set of rules, for the student to enter the next semester, keep changing every year and attending morchas regd the same is a common time-pass for one and all.
—————————
7) The University question papers are often riddled with mistakes. The students are compensated (i.e. given marks) only if he/she picks out the mistake, makes proper adjustments/assumptions and then arrives at the solution. Is the student supposed to answer questions or do research on the paper setter’s mistakes in the three hour limit?
————————–
Though the University rule says that the results are to be declared within 45 days after the finishing date of the exams, not even once have the results been declared on time ..almost always the results are declared three months later! While the B.E. students from other Universities bag jobs, a Mumbai University student sits at home awaiting results!!

AICTE
1) Trusts with very little or no facilities are given license to run an engineering college and no vigil is maintained to ensure their proper functioning. (Many of the colleges are owned by politicians for whom these institutes are just a moneymaking machine).
———————-
2) The syllabus is not reviewed at regular intervals and students end up learning things their forefathers might have found useful but which hold no significance any longer.
—————–
3) Answer sheets are corrected by professors who are not qualified – in many cases they don’t even have command on the subject they are assessing!. No wonder it’s the paper presentation and not the validity of the answers that will see you through the examinations.

PROFESSORS
The professors in almost all the colleges take great pleasure in burdening the students. They have in their hands 25 marks (that a subject-in-charge is supposed to give as term work to the students) and believe me, if these 25 marks are taken away from these profs (with due respect to the sincere profs) not a single student would bother about ‘em as they are just not worth it!

PARENTS
Parents need to be patient with their child’s performance…. especially with respect to Mumbai University. It is not always the student’s fault and the pressure from the home adds to his/her agony. Parents have got to understand that KTs are an integral part of the life of Mumbai University engineering students, like it or not

Footnote
Other Universities take into consideration only the Final Year marks (i.e. Sem VII & Sem VIII) while considering class. Mumbai University, on the other hand, considers an average of Sem V, Sem VI, Sem VII and Sem VIII!! Having seen all the aspects, it would be unfair to blame the students for poor results encountered year in and year out!!

- article courtesy Junaid Khateeb
Mumbai Univ Computer & IT students would know him better as Junaid Sir

Related posts:

1. College Professor
2. FE Revised Syllabus
3. Last Three Months : Rewind