Why Sushant Rohilla is a victim of a flawed education policy #JusticeForSushant

You would have to be living on a remote island or a hill if you haven’t read about the suicide of Sushant Rohilla, an Amity Law School student, because he was debarred from giving his exams. Reason: shortage of attendance.

As soon as you read that, most of you would agree that the skewed concept of college attendance can be a real big pain in your behind. (Tried to be as graceful about it as I could)

Anyways, we’ve seen and heard about it a lot and we all agree this was the most unfortunate thing that could happen with a student. In Sushant’s story, he was a bright student, constantly winning moots and other activities but recently had met with an accident because of which he was unable to attend classes. He did not submit a medical certificate and an email was shot off to his parents regarding his debarment without giving him a chance to present his case (you’re a law school, Amity, whatever happened to the PRINCIPLES OF NATURAL JUSTICE ffs). His repeated pleas were ignored by the complete administration and we lost a comrade and his parents, probably their life.

And you know, his suicide is not a one-off incident that we could simply ignore or term it as something unfortunate or the boy was too weak. He was a victim of this systematic screwed up education policy that we have in place. What was the poor boy’s fault? That he failed to submit a medical certificate?

 

Sushant Rohilla

Maybe there’s a larger flaw in place- the arbitrary education system. Every educational institution has this policy of 75% attendance in place without actually realizing the needs of the students. By the grace of god, the most they’ll condone your attendance is till 70% and after that you are left to fend for yourself. And what do most students do? Submit a fake medical certificate, of course.

Hell, in my institution, the administration received 400+ medical certificates in the last 8 days of the semester, most of them obviously fake. Since the issue was picked up by the media, lots of students were stopped from giving their exams and are now sitting for re-examinations. Given the situation, there could have been a Sushant from my institution too.

And this is something that keeps happening year after year and it is mind boggling that no one till date has even tried to find out the reason behind it. What ails our education system? Why do students not attend classes?

As far as my tiny mind would go, I could come up with the following two reasons-

The first being the students like Sushant. These are the students who do not limit their education to 9 to 5 classes but instead want to explore themselves, test their boundaries, so they do whatever comes in their way. And why shouldn’t they? They are probably better off than most their counterparts.

For example, I am a law student. I have to attend 9 to 5 classes. If I got for a national moot competition, I need a month of dedicated preparation for that plus 2-3 days of travel plus 3-4 days of the competition itself and how much attendance do I get in return? ONLY THE OFFICIAL DAYS of the competition. Do you realise how maddening that is? Students work their asses off for such competitions and all they get is peanuts of attendance and they are left with two options- beg the teachers for attendance or submit a fake medical certificate.

And that’s just a moot. Add to that, internships, competitions, college fests, or if you’re someone with other interests- your music, your writing, your photography and what not.

But no matter how much you would be excelling overall, the rigid system stays in place. You either learn to live with it, or it kills all your initiative, your drive and your passion.

Well, that’s one reason.

The second reason and the more apparent one is that (which most colleges will also agree with) students do not want to attend the classes. And it is true. At times students do not simply want to attend classes. But has anyone ever wondered why? I, personally, from my experience can say that when I don’t want to attend classes is because the teacher simply does not interest me. The manner in which students are educated these days is sub-standard to say the least. Where are the teachers who can tickle your grey matter cells? Who are engaging enough for students to attend classes themselves? Teaching these days is a profession that every Tom, Dick and Harry takes up but it takes someone really very special who can communicate ideas to students in an engaging manner. But alas it’s been reduced to lectures where teachers simply read off the books and the lecture of the day is done. Where is the innovation, the exchange of ideas, communication? I don’t see it anywhere in our educational institutions these days. Just because a teacher knows her subject does not mean she can TEACH the same to her disciples. And that’s where our education system terribly fails. If we simply have to vomit on paper what we’ve read in the books, why are we even wasting money on this trash system in place? We could do that by ourselves. And a lot of students do because their teachers do not challenge themselves enough in the classrooms.

Coming back to Sushant’s case, it is really very unfortunate that he became a victim of this faulty system and what is even more infuriating is the complete indifference of his college authorities. What would have been more graceful for them would have been to accept that they made a mistake but alas, we are mere customers and college authorities huge companies which do not care if they lost one customer. Their business will continue to flourish.

If you would like to support Sushant’s parents’ cause for justice, please make sure you share every article/post in his support 9including this, if you’d like) with the hashtag #JusticeForSushant 

Rest in Peace. Our wands are raised.