Kashmir University’s depressing groove!
Disrespecting time, passing the buck cleverly, and frustrating a student—that’s the crux of the story that follows. This piece would have never been recoursed to but for the extremely troubling experience a student suffered at the hands of a slew of people employed in the whole examination block ordering students to comply with their cocky directions: go downstairs, then upstairs, wait till tomorrow, or come days later. It feels as if they relish in delaying things—or they aren’t, unfortunately, aware of how to perform their duties impartially. Impolite words? Picture the following factual narrative!
A student of the 2016 batch majoring in economics had an issue with regard to his open elective subject. Owing to some reasons, he couldn’t take the test of his OE subject in his fourth semester. Fast forward a few years, and in December 2022, a notice was circulated regarding the conducting of a special examination for the shortfall of credits. For which the forms had to be filled manually—which is, sans online stuff. The student filled the form and took the test, and a couple of years down the line, the result of the subject is yet to be credited to the student’s profile.
Student’s fault: why he didn’t confirm the status of his result somewhere between 2023 and 2024. The system’s grave crack: why they failed to upload the student’s result in the first place. Wait...the student had even asked a she-official, back a couple of years, about the status of the result—which she ensured finalizing. The assurance has not yet been realized, but the system’s number one failure lies in not checking if a certain student’s sweat and blood has been given its due or not!
The student’s father was diagnosed with multiple myeloma; he remained busy with him for some duration post-2022. Probably for a year or so. And then the officials carelessly sidelined his case. The system’s number two failure lies in not considering the case for two long years.
Now, of late, I, on behalf of the student under consideration here, tried to reach out to the varsity and confirm why the result was not declared, given two whole summers have passed. Here begins the traumatic experience. Follow on.
Firstly, I had to convince an official there that the student had really taken the test. We collated the attendance sheet and award sheet, taking a week for the student to justify the case. All fine till then. But a couple of days later, we had to show the fee receipt of the student as his subject didn’t reflect on his profile. Our truthfully saying—and even showing the circular that the form was to be filled manually and not online—was given less due, and after some time, the CC-NEP (a kind soul) forwarded the case to the controller examination, with proof. All this took almost 20-25 days before the much serious vexation I was to endure.
An official in the Single Window Clearance System, with whom the responsibility of consigning the case to the controller had been entrusted, played days and weeks later after it. Why he failed to resolve the case with the controller at the appropriate time or why the controller failed to pay heed to it, I don’t know. But I am profusely certain that he doesn’t know the context of our case now: we are left to ourselves.
Just a few days ago (after two months), as I went to the varsity again, the official in the SWC hall directed me to some other person in there, who directed me to go upstairs, now the upstairs one directed me to go downstairs—to the same person. The same person again directed me to go to some other person (system engineer), who asked me to go upstairs, who then instructed me to go to the tabulation, and then back to the same person I initially tried to know the status of the case from, who then tried to ask some other person to send me to the tabulation, where I was already sent by the person (system engineer).
It felt like an earthquake scene from a Hollywood movie. At least, they earn money out of scenes, but here I am—wandering here and there—without even a hope. Everyone else out there failed to confirm my case – a tragedy we have not been able to come out of even though we are fast pacing toward science-based swift actions. Even the email IDs provided in the SWCS hall for confirming statuses of different cases from home are not looked at; I tried to send a different query via mail. Folks, if this doesn’t reflect the nauseating inefficiencies of students’ redressal mechanism, I curse the administration of the varsity sans qualms.
We now don’t lament the case gone with the wind most probably; we wail the time we wasted. Hours upon hours. Waiting and walking and receiving perfectly curated hollow assurances. The afflicted student now doesn’t seem to be interested at all in trying to reach out to them to resolve the case. Even I am tired deep to the bones, frankly speaking. Two months is a long time. And it pains and pinches badly, with life throwing other slings and arrows. The Hon’ble Vice Chancellor tried to ease the troubles of students going from pillar to post by inaugurating SWCS, but little did we know that it would be an old wine in a new bottle. A somewhat replica of the old system.
Here it also reminds me of a person employed in the SWCS whose style of conversing with a student and facial expression at a student’s trivial query has one retreat to the quietest corners of one’s room. The tragedy is I can’t prove it with objective variables, as it’s a subjective experience. But discarding subjectivity is what will doom us one day.
I am not sure whether the narrative I have been mentioning will lead to any change, but I am fairly sure my children would suffer when they reach the university, miss an OE paper, pass it the next year, and suffer for months over marks that are not credited, only to end up with exasperation and nothing.
Bottomline:
I may have used somewhat odd language, but trust me, they are pure, straight out of the heart. What I felt, I presented before you. Call it unbecoming of a student, but I at least didn’t wear a mask while writing it. Neither am I hiding myself, nor betraying you, and nor leaving you in misconceptions.
And in case you need further details of the case, feel free to connect at peerfaizanbashir@gmail.com
