spit it out

A hunter goes into the forest, on his hunt he runs into a lion and they fight. Who wins the battle is unknown, the hunter makes it back to the village but one thing is for sure……..“Until the lion learns to write, the narrative will always glorify the hunter’’.

Most of the time the situation presents itself as if the lecturers and the school management are out to get the students, and lecturers have been called all sorts of names by students (sadists, narcissists, devils reincarnates Lol!). we must understand that the school management is supposed to prepare us for the real world, and it cannot do that by treating its students like eggs. They must be hard on the students, to prepare them not just academically but to teach them principles of life like hard work, responsibility, diligence, efficiency etc. so remember that next time you are given assignments back to back (hard work), when you are marked wrong because you left a 0.005 out of the answer (efficiency) or when you are given a hard test. Remember that from the university you are going into society and the slightest mistake, laziness or carelessness might be the difference between life and death to someone. Imagine you are an engineer working on a tall building, how many people will die should you fail to do your job properly? Being a teacher/lecturer is a hard job because you hold the future of not only the individual in your class but the future of the nation as well, a lecturer can inspire a student to be a future Nobel prize winner or a lazy individual who will pass through history without making a difference to anyone, cooperate with your lecturers and make it easy for them to mold you into the person you are supposed to be.

But as the saying goes “there is no smoke without fire”, sometimes the system is corrupt and bias, and it is hard for a student to be heard because well “the lion hasn’t learnt how to write yet”. There are many cases where the management/lecturer is clearly on the wrong but not much is done because they hold an almost ultimate power over what will happen.

Student A

This is a brilliant student who has been doing very well throughout his year, he is exceptional and in one particular course he gets a CA of 38/40. He writes his sessional exam and after the results come out he discovers that in that particular course. He has a grade of “C”, Since he is making points this disadvantages him, and he is sure he did very well in the sessional. He goes to management and shows them his CA and tells them to say he knows what he wrote in the sessional and even if he dint do well his final results shouldn’t be that low. He is answered with indifference and told to either apply for a remark where he is supposed to pay a large amount or to write a letter to his lecturer and dean of school (which they will answer at their convenience). It takes a long time but his results are found after weeks of him following them up almost every day and it turns out that he got an A+ in that course.

Student B

Average student, he is doing fairly well. He has a disagreement with a lecturer and he is failed year after year in that particular course until some other lecturers notice the trend and call for a meeting where the issue is addressed and he is made to proceed.

These two went through a lot, I mean wasted time, money and endless effort not to talk of the emotional trauma, and it’s good that their ending is a good one, but what of the untold stories of other students who suffer due to personal short comings of lectures, errors in the school system or management? How many times will students suffer because the school lost a student’s results, or if the lecturer uploaded the wrong results (records a 4% instead of a 94%, actually happened). The problem is not the error (mistake) because those happened every time I mean the lecturers and the system are not perfect and if we expect them to be then we are living a fantasy. The problem is how the error is corrected, how much trouble does a student need to go through in order for an error to be corrected? An error which is not even his/her fault, students shouldn’t be penalized for a lecturers/the systems short comings. The procedure for correcting errors in results should be favorable for the student and lecturers shouldn’t be given ultimate power, they should also be monitored and so should the results of the students in the class. Questions should be asked (why has the entire class failed?? Is it the lecturers fault or the students?? Why are many students repeating a certain course every year?? What can be done about it??) these are the questions management should be asking. It is sad that almost an entire class fails a course and the lecturer is even proud and nothing is done about it. Many of these cases that occur are not addressed because the right procedure by the students is not followed, yes sometimes management does not do its part but that doesn’t mean that as students a back seat should be taken. Complaints should be launched addressing issues affecting individual students and because a system exists the system will eventually do its part.

The system is not perfect but we should find solace in the fact that a system does exist, if as a student you see that you are treated unfairly in any way use the system to fight your battle. Fight for what’s yours because at the end of the day it’s your carrier your life, if you keep quiet life will go on and that will be the end of you. Now get me right I said use the system, not any other means, violence or any other unruly behavior never achieves anything good. Follow the procedure that the system stipulates, write a letter to the personnel responsible, approach the whole situation in a calm manner and even the people who are supposed to help you will respect you.

The village (society) only knows what the hunter (lecturer) has told them and they believe it. The lion(student) has all the power and strength to go into the village and force everyone with violence telling them that what the hunter said is not true, but if he does this the village will say “that’s how the lion is, it’s full of violence and we expected nothing less’’. So until the lion learns how to write a letter explaining what actually transpired the narrative told by the hunter will always glorify the hunter.