Headline Aug 31, 2015 / ''' STUDENTS - TIGHTROPE '''

''' STUDENTS - TIGHTROPE '''

SOMEWHERE....... in a location I won't disclose,......this very stylish, Master's student- with a squint of Clint Eastwood, shuffles in anxiety and pent up anger,  -like a coiled spring.

And blank-eyes the strong mug of tea before him. He takes not a sip, -but a gulp, and then from a somewhat collapsed document bag, he unsheathes his diary, and having obtained my permission, begins reading from hand written notes:

'' *This University, Sir, is basically a business entity that is selling degrees to the students. Oh! Students is a wrong word. A better word is we, 'the customers'. 

In seeking education these troubled and confused customers, never ever receive any career counselling. We, students, take admission with dream of being successful in the run of life, through a completion of a degree.

In the name of a degree, what they actually give out is a piece of paper. Nobody seems to understand or care enough as to the actual purpose of any program-

Oh, the lecturers, Oh, sorry the dictators, gender biased, nonprofessionals, untrained, uncaring, incapable and incompetent, is what they are!!...........*''

I am taken aback! I had never for the world of me, considered such an onslaught: What I have written above is 98% of his notes, that he has passed on to me. 

[Student F],  insists that I name the university and doubly insists that it should be done under his name. He goes on to add many, many details. That I will for sure be covering in the Headline Research ahead.

'' I advise patience. Give me time, to call this university. Let me hear what they have to say in their defence. Let me get this university to stop, reconcile and improve. I won't disclose your name to them......

This is a revengeful society. They will come after you hammer and tongs. Let me use polite pleading and persuasion. Let me check and cross-check,'' is what I said to student F.

In no time I will be calling on this university, in person. The concern for education and students must always take the forefront at !WOW!  -the World Students Society.

IN PAKISTAN, only perception sells. Student F, here is talking about a well-known university. A university that charges you ''a pound of flesh''   for education. 

Over some time, I, too, have begun developing the making of a sceptic, of the sinking standards of education in the developing world. Like the great Muslim philosopher  Ibn-e-Sena:

Although my heart made much haste in this desert

It did not know a single hair, but took to hair-splitting

In my heart shone a thousand suns

But it did not understand the nature of a single atom.

If Pakistani Universities don't wake up,  ''Meaninglessness'' will set in. And this disease is not easily curable.

Student Sana Fatima, is a very bright girl: Just hear what she writes: I am old enough to know that the world is nobody's oyster for long. The clocks really don't care about anyone's problems. 

I am growing up and the reality hit me hit me hard that  ''growing up is not a lot of fun.'' 

When I enrolled in my university, I never realised that someday I will be leaving this place. That I actually might miss this place never occurred to me. I was too self-obsessed to ever believe that.

People used to tell me this is the best time of your life. I just could not see it that way. How can life with so much pressure, examination and dead-lines be the best time of your life?

I have been living with in the  ice-cold happiness of graduating next month. Yesterday, at our second-last examination, I forgot to say bye to my group fellows.

And now I know, I do not want to say  good-bye  because it could turn out to be a good-bye for a long time. It is like going to an airport to drop off your relatives. You tell them everything:

''Keep in touch, stay safe and enjoy every moment of your journey.'' But you do not ever want to say  ''bye''.

I fear the life out of the academic world   -the world of actual grown-ups. Where busy id the  new  make-a-plan.  There will be no compulsion of  70 percent attendance as an excuse to meet a few friends. Out-of-the-syllabus questions will be life life turning you upside down. Grown-ups have so much to lose.

All your  16  something years of your education,  you look outside the window at the people who go to work and look so chic and mature.

But what you never see is the baggage of responsibilities they carry along with them every day.

The novelty of options, the choice to become anyone and whoever I want to be, with nobody telling me the right answers in the classroom, is frightening.

How will I exactly know I became the  'right person' ?  Who exactly will grade me? I will miss the certainty of of knowing where I stand or how much is that I have lost, forever.

I will miss the times I failed without failing at life. I will miss the time, I celebrated so hard at getting an  A  on my  'ethical studies'  examination. The real ethical test will either let me sleep at night or haunt me forever.

It is going to be much more than the classroom has prepared me for. It just hit me that life is a much stricter teacher.

Congratulations on graduating and welcome to the life of grown-ups.

With respectful dedication to the Parents, Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all on !WOW!   -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

''' Democratic Protests '''

Good Night and God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless