Dronacharya was undoubtedly a great teacher. He taught the princes who used to attend his classes very well. Ekalavya being a bad student, didn't even attend a single class. Still he managed to learn of his own and proved himself to be better archer than all of Drona's pupils including his favourite Arjuna. Practically, a student with zero attendance was far better than the students who regularly attended the classes. Ekalavya's archery prowess questioned the sanity of the wholeGuru-Shishya' tradition, then prevalent education system. Ultimately, Dronacharya demanded Ekalavya's right hand's thumb asguru-dakshina'!
Thanks to attendance shortage, thousands of PUC students--both first year and second year--across Karnataka were not allowed to appear for the final exams this year. (Over 2,000 II PU students can't write exams) These students have to wait for another year to just be eligible write their exams.
Nowadays people judge the colleges by the fact whether they can deliver cent percent result or not. The colleges know this, so they make sure that the students, who most probably won't pass in the board exams don't even get to appear for these exams, thus maintain 100% result year after year. They use various tools to attain this. The most powerful of all is the misuse of the attendance rule. The dull students who are believed to fail in the board exam are prevented from even appearing for it by artificially creating the attendance shortage.
Then there are those students who have very talented friends who give them proxy during their roll call, they are also marked present. Ironically, in some classes, the students who miss to say “Yes Sir” or “Yes Maam” during the roll call are also marked absent. The students who reach the class after the roll call are usually marked absent but it's not uncommon for the students to walk out of the back door once the lecturer has finished with the roll call.
The greatest problem an unskilled lecturer can face is to control a class full of students. The art of controlling about a hundred odd late teenage students is gained only by experience and lots of patience. These lecturers don't actually mind students not being attentive towards the class, as long as they don't make any noise. As corporal punishment is no longer allowed, the attendance is the new cane used by the lecturers to discipline the students.
The PUE board need not abolish the attendance rule whole together, they just have to make it a bit lenient. The board must make sure that the colleges don't misuse this powerful rule. The whole attendance system should be made transparent. No student should be marked absent for wrong reasons. Misusing this rule should be considered as an offence. A lecturer or a college found using this rule as a weapon must be punished.
The system of education is continuously evolving and improving with time. We have come a long way from the much flawed Guru-Shishya system to the modern education system. Still it isn't perfect. Hope it will gain perfectness in a few years.
The author is a software Engineer based in Bengaluru
Comments
What should I do if my lecturer threatens me to deduct my attendance to zero for no given reason? Is there a law which protects students from such aweful threats?
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