Colleges and the Pains that Students Suffer

The past few days have been almost entirely about the Indian students in various parts of the world. In India and Australia, primarily. It started with the news of the racial discrimination against Indian students in Australia, and has now progressed to highlight the “capitation fee” scam in the private colleges in the country. For about a week now, people the world over have been hearing a lot about Indian students being ill treated in Australia(and some other parts of the world too), to such an extent that there have been several cases of murder, attempt to murder, suicide, etc. owing to these “racist” factors. It amuses me, in a way, because I thought it was something everyone knew about! Indians are not really given royal treatment in most parts of the world. Not even in India!

When people first spoke of the case Sravan Kumar, my reaction was: “not another case which will be forgotten in less than a week!” But I guess I was wrong. The reason being, several other such cases started to surface. Take for example the case of the 21-year-old Indian student who was slashed across his chest with a box-cutter knife, when he failed to give five Aussie men a few cigarettes and some petty cash. Now isn’t that something which people usually get to hear in the American suburbs?

Exactly my point!

Such things happen ALL the time EVERYWHERE! Just that this is one incident, a series of events, rather, which has managed to surface at the right time. Students are applying to universities and are completing their visa procedures at around this time of the year. Many Indian students will leave the country for their master’s in a couple of months from now. So I guess that is one reason why this has been taken seriously. Had the timing been any different, I seriously doubt if the reaction would have been of this magnitude. Many such news stories never surface.

Let us face it, racial discrimination goes on everywhere. The US, the UK, Canada, Australia, most of Europe, you name it! Though the degree varies from place to place, racism can be described as a “ubiquitous” phenomenon. My friend recently did his project in a very highly reputed college in the US. People would give their right hands for a seat in that college. And this friend of mine tells me that it is not just the students, but faculty and other scientists as well who have to face the brunt of racism. Most countries will deny such things before you can bat an eyelid, but sadly, this is the harsh reality.

Moving on, the next big news this week was about students having a tough time in colleges in India, especially in places like Chennai. A more recent development is the “capitation fees” scandal that has been “exposed” in a couple of medical colleges. Though there is a lot being spoken about in the news, all that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Almost all private colleges Each and every private college in India runs with the sole purpose of minting money for the owner(s). Medical colleges usually fetch the biggest sums, but the student intake is not very high. Engineering colleges get the biggest chunk of students, and so the “capitation fee/donation” is lower. Arts and science colleges have a smaller margin, but the infrastructure hardly costs much either, and so it is still a good bargain.

This whole episode started when a first year student from St. Joseph’s Engineering College committed suicide a few days ago when the college authorities “did not allow him to take his model exams(pre-final exams, towards the end of every semester), because he had cheated during the practical examinations.” Nothing wrong there, if you ask me. However, it goes without saying that the student would not have been allowed to appear in the semester exams conducted by Anna University either. The guy ended up committing suicide, and left behind 4 letters in his shirt pocket. Two of the letters are said to have been burnt by the college authorities upon being discovered. The two letters, according to witness accounts, spoke about the college. One other letter was addressed to the boy’s parents, and the last letter spoke about his reasons for having committed suicide. He urged the college to return the capitation fee his parents had paid because it would help his brother get a much needed ear operation, for which his parents had no way of raising funds. Sad, isn’t it?

The college authorities immediately came out strongly saying that any college would have taken strong action against students who resorted to malpractice in the exams. Fair enough. But the morons went on to say that they “had no intention of preventing the student from taking his semester exams because of such an offence, and that this misconception made him take the drastic step.” Why do I call them morons? Because guys from Jeppiaar Engieering College, a sister concern of St Joseph’s Engineering College, joined their brothers in the strike and brought out cases where 7 students were not given permission to take their semester exams! Not one or two, but 7!

I am really glad that many things have now come out in the open as a result of this controversy, but I feel sad that a student had to lose his life for some people to open their eyes. I find it amusing, because even now, the entire picture has not come out in the open. Colleges collect huge sums of money in the name of “donation/capitation fees” from the students in order to “reserve” seats. Confession: my parents had to shell out Four Lakh Rupees themselves in order to “reserve” a seat in Sathyabama. St Joseph’s and Sathyabama share a compound wall. All owned by the same guy, Jeppiaar, and run by his family. They have 6 Engineering colleges in all, apart from colleges of nursing, dental colleges and even an international school! The average going rate for an engineering seat last year was 4-6 Lakh, with some NRIs having to shell out as much as 12 Lakh for certain seats. And then the tuition fee is an additional 0.75 lakhs(at least) each year. And all this, for an Engineering college which openly refuses to follow the AICTE guidelines and is notorious in the student community! It is no surprise that Jeppiaar is rumoured to have an empire of well over 3,000 Crore! That is 30,000,000,000 Rupees!

My cousin studies in one of the medical colleges which were a part of the “expose.” Luckily for her, high level influence got her a seat without any capitation fee. How much did her classmates have to pay for their seats last year? The lowest was about 45 Lakh, and the highest was up to 75-80 Lakh! And this, just for an MBBS seat! Apparently, an MD in Radiology costs 2 Crore in the same college! Only hard-cash, by the way. THAT is how expensive Sri Ramachandra Medical College is! And there are several hundreds of such students who join each year! Not just that, all this cash is just the under-the-table transaction to book the seat. The actual “tuition fee” needs to be paid each year and that comes up to about 3.25 lakhs a year. Thankfully, at least that bit is declared openly and parents get a receipt, which can be declared which filing income tax returns.

Some students have parents who can handle that kind of money while others have to study using bank loans. But is all this worth it? ABSOLUTELY NOT! The faculty is usually pathetic. Infrastructure is as bad as bad can get. The faculty openly admit that no real practical knowledge can be gained in college because of the lack of infrastructure. Many students come to such colleges due to parental pressure or due to the government’s system which ensures that most deserving candidates don’t get seats in government colleges. It is not that government colleges are any better in terms of faculty or infrastructure, but at least there, there is no “capitation fee.”

And parents are still hell-bent on getting their wards admitted to some such engineering/medical college as they will be “ensuring a bright future” for their kids. Total BS! And now, as if the insane rules and regulations “exposed” last year were not enough, we have this capitation fee scam coming out in the open as well. Something else next year, I am sure. But still, we will find parents forming never-ending queues outside these colleges, even if their kids want to do some very different course like Psychology, Visual Communication or Literature. They know of all the evils and still don’t want to bring about a change. They don’t want to try and bring the evil practices in the open. They don’t want to get themselves in trouble. Why? Because they are “ensuring a bright future” for their kids! Bright, my arse! Effing cretins!