Its ben a while since i was actually in mood to actually bring myself to blog. I have been peeking into other blogs and the usual google, Y! mail & orkut till i drop to sleep.
i am in mood today and well, here it is.
Firstly something interesting - last month (mid june) i was asked to attend a syllabus committee meeting of a local college (arts college which had 1600 students and over 12 departments, as the Chemistry department's HOD proudly told me). While i tried to feign an attack of a particularly virulent viral fever,um, virus (;)) the prof who invited me came home and dragged
me off (wearing a tie & all - well, my mother's doing really :) ) to the,um, committee meeting.
I was told, in a stern voice, by the guy who they called "the chair" that we were here to decide the Chemistry department's UG course's syllabus for the next 2 years. I was the,um, "External (hold your breath) 'Expert'" from the industry and as my prof put it - 'part of the top management of a growing local chemical industry' which makes 'high tech' products. I cud only
stare and swallow :)
When we arrived the 'board' was deep in discussion. One guy apparently was new to the department and words like "dynamic" "radical" were all used to describe this gentleman - frankly, as i saw it - all of them - this new 'dyanamo' included -were all similar looking with spectacles of varying thickness & heads in various stages of hair loss.
Now, this dyanamo had apparently come up with such a super syllabus the "chair" (this guy seemed to be the head of this commttee) said : " Sir ! Remember this ! we have a syllabus revision every year and if introduce all these improvements in one shot and what on earth will we do the next year. We will run out of ideas and what will the Correspondent think of our
department committee ? "
The Dynamo says: - " Saar ! Semester II chapter 3 a eduthu Semester V chapter 5a pottuta, yaaruku theriyum. en pazhiya collegela appidi thaan 10 varushama panrome. Dont worry ellam Organic Chemistry thaan"
(sir! Interchange semester II chapter 3 and Semester V Chapter 5 next time. Nobody will know its all Organic chemistry. In my old job, we've ben doing this for 10 years. )
all of them nod, in total agreement. They start from Sem 1 chapter 1 and go on.
I loosen my tie and hang on. My mobile rings four of five times in the next 10 minutes. Twice it is Tata Indicom from chennai with a computerized voice reminding me to make payment immediate to avoid disconnection. They all stare at me patronizingly listening to the phone each time - as if i am making 2 or 3 million dollar deals. I mutter an apology and switch the damn
thing off.
I doze off for sometime. Theyve reached Sem 3 Chapter 5 - Intrumental methods. I wake up with a jerk - I got an 'S' from Dr.Sivakumar back in ACTECH in IMA. THey have 5 topics mentioned shortly as phrases.
The prof in charge of this course was then instructed to 'blow up' the topics to 'show mass' [ This, i found was a standard instruction passed on whenever the contents of a topic seemed to occupy only a few lines ] They ask the prof in charge to suggest a reference book as that column was empty for this course. He, apparently noticing my interest, asks me if i knew any book that is 'used widely in the indsutry' for Instrumentation.
I say,um, "Willard Merritt Dean and Settle Sir! excellent book. I have a copy myself." He seems suitably impressed and notes the name down. Feeling guilty i add, " but sir, in the industry no one uses books like these. we use more simpler books - like training manuals "
He says, " Oh! ok. but make sure that the book you named is by a foreign author ". Yeah sure :)
And hey, he adds - "is there stuff on Thin layer chromatography in it ? ". I say - "of course sir. must be".
By this time, CHai/Biscuit and an envelop marked "Industry Expert - Mr.Abhilash" containing my 'sitting fees' (as my friend the prof put it) of two hundreds and 5 tens.
By the time iam half way through my chai one of the profs - who had quietly arguing about something with 'the chair' throws up his hands in disgust and says - "sir! you cant expect me handle Basic program and C programs in the same semester. Because for C programs i have to bring in a "Computer consultant" because i dont know C myself. I know 10 Basic programs very well and that itself is adequate for a B.Sc in Chemistry and besides Programming was put into the course only due to pressure from parents committee who were forcing us to improve 'placement prospects'"
He turned to me and said - " Sir. You said you went to Anna University - tell him (he points to the "chair") how computer training is given ". I tell him that we did countless Basic programs and C, C++, Visual Basic in +2 class and we had the whole thing redone in 1st semester college in about 20 hours or so. Also, i added with some emotion- "It is important that students are exposed to some decent computer courses and not outdated stuff like Basic "
He nods appreciatively and says to the chair - "Sir! Young people these days" nods again " are very knowledgable". " Ok I will do 4 or 5 C programs "
By this time, i switch on my mobile and allow a few SMS messages to come in loudly and look around apologetically. My friend the prof says " look, the guy is already busy and he'll have to leave" and ushers me out of the room. I slip the 250 to him asking him to pass it on to the lab assistants in his department and run to back to the parking lot.
WHile driving past the main gate, i notice hordes of students going back in after lunch and i can only wonder about the fate of these poor buggers and what education they are receiving.
No wonder Kiran Karnik always says that India has too many graduates but most of them are not of "employable quality".
Who is to be blamed ? what is to be done ? I dunno.
It was a wee bit too much for me for one day.
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