It's (probably) all about money, Honey.

This is my last year of my Engineering studies. You probably might be expecting a teary-eyed farewell blog post (which I could definitely write, but not now). This academic year wasn't like the one I was hoping for. Partly because it's the placement season in all the colleges, and partly because my life was messed up by my university.

I was pretty happy this time the last year. The exams were going on okay, and I was enjoying my engineering life. I am a reasonably good student, and I don't worry much about the examination results. Even my final year started, but I wasn't bothered much about them. 

How terribly wrong I was.

I should have bothered.

The day dawned. Technically, there's no result day in my university. They just select a random day, and spring up a surprise for us, every time. Though I say I don't bother about my result, I had my palms sweaty the time when I was searching for my number in the PDF they release online.

As I typed my number in the search box and pressed enter, my heart definitely skipped a few beats in that second. 

Apparently, I had failed in a subject.

OK, so there's got to be a typographical error there somewhere. How could I end up in the "Fail/A.T.K.T" section!? I stared at the screen in disbelief. For those who think that there are no errors in the University results, please let me correct you. 

A similar incident happened to me when I was in Second Year. The result that University released had a major proofreading error, that being, I was graded as "Failed" in a subject that I actually had passed in the previous semester. Yes. Could give someone a heart attack.

So, still hopeful of the same mistake, I decided to wait it out until I got the official mark list from the University. The next day, when I receive the mark sheet from the University, it proved me wrong. I had definitely failed the exam. The subject in question went by the acronym DSPA (Digital Signal Processing & Applications). Usually, I consider myself a person who even if had not studied a thing, would still get passing marks. Sounds like I just had a twisted superiority complex.

I still couldn't believe it. I still couldn't come to terms with the idea that I had terribly fucked up in a serious university exam.

But I had to let it sink in. And then I started receiving sombre condolences from people who acted as if someone had just died. I received tremendous support from my friends. When the feeling did sink in, they were the ones who were there for me. I had just accepted that I had definitely done wrong in the exam. My mind reasoned that maybe I had failed because I didn't study. That I was daydreaming during the exams, and what not (my mind is very weird, I get it). Teachers were in a relative shock because I was one of the most unexpected students to flunk an exam. Inspite of all this, I managed through. I applied for revaluation because I was partly in denial (and partly accepted my fuck up).

The revaluation process here isn't the best. A candidate has to 

1. Apply for a photocopy of the answer sheet in question.
2. If the student feels the answers are wrongly evaluated, one can request for a re-evaluation.

The University charges Rs. 250 for a single answer sheet, and Rs. 330 for the subsequent re-evaluation.

(I don't know how they evaluate these charges. It's not as if they need to send that measly paged answer book to the U.S.)

I was eligible to be allowed to keep term (A.T.K.T), so I could give my re-exams in the next phase of exams, i.e. current semester.

All my friends who had cleared the exams had to pay Rs. 810 as the examination fee. This includes 5 subjects. I, however, had to pay Rs. 1410, a whole of Rs. 600 more as a mere consequence of attempting a failed exam once again!! (Do they even Math?). 

Never mind though, I thought. 

I received the photocopy, and it didn't come as a surprise that the answers were incorrectly evaluated. I got the answer copy checked by our internal examiner and she evaluated that my marks should be double that what I had been "awarded". 

Reasonably satisfied now, I could put an end to my insecurities. As our examiner predicted, I was awarded double the marks in the re-evaluation phase, and the point to be noted is that I paid Rs. 330 for that again.

Irresponsibly checking the answers and subsequently failing them can put a great amount of unrest in their relatively peaceful lives! Everyone knows the number of Indian engineers graduating every year. And on the top of it, there's a fiercely competitive world out there. It's equal to playing with and jeopardising the students' lives! The case of suicides by students needn't be explained here.

This incident made me lose a whole lot of good job opportunities, because the eligibility criteria of most good companies have a clause of having no failed subjects in any semester. Not to mention the massive harassment one suffers, always afraid if you are good enough to do anything. All the doubting faces of your parents and teachers who always thought I was a good kid but now probably fell into bad ways. It's too much.

There were about 7 of my classmates who failed in the same subject, and who upon the re-checking, passed with a decent number of marks. The question arises that what sort of examiners does the university employ to check the answer papers? Are they even qualified for marking them?

Consider this scenario: There are a lot of engineering colleges in the jurisdiction of the University of Pune. Also consider that a college operates three engineering branches of 120 students in each year. So there are about 360 students in a single year. Engineering typically has courses of 4 years, so there are about (360x4) 1440 students appearing for examinations. Considering 20% (this is fairly conservative if I consider the demographic in my class) of these students fail in a single subject amounts to 288 students. 

If these 288 students apply for a photocopy and subsequent re-evaluations, it would amount to (Rs. 250 + Rs. 330 + Rs. 600) Rs. 1180 per student. 288 students equate to Rs. 3,39,840. And this is just considering if all fail in only one subject. Some fail in two, some in three.

Moreover, most colleges have atleast 3 (some even 6) branches  of engineering inside their campuses. And there are a lot of colleges even beside engineering institutes who are under UoP control. (Too lazy to count. If interested to see the college list, here it is). 

What better way to raise/earn money than failing unsuspecting students and overcharging them for examination fees? This many not entirely true however. It may also be the case that the examiner was a retard, which still means that the university employs some retards with a professional degree. (I know where to look for my job now)

I consider this as legal scamming. How else could you justify just demanding this obscene amount of money from innocent students, whereas on the other side you provide drought benefits to the people from an affected region? What difference does it make when you're going to extract money either way?

People who know me consider me a very adamant, and a persistent guy. The hell I was going to let my parent's hard earned money to waste. Even if one considers the fees of re-evaluation fees of a total of Rs. 580 be reasonable, the other Rs. 600 was an unreasonable rip-off! This is because upon clearing the re-checking process, I didn't have the need to sit for the exam. So, I should be getting my extra Rs. 600 for the exam forms back, right?

I, thus, contacted all the authorities who could have helped me get my Rs. 600 back. I started with the contact details mentioned on the official UoP examinations page: http://exam.unipune.ac.in/Pages/Contact.html

However, no one even cared to reply me back with an acknowledgement. I was not deterred, though.

I went to the college authorities. I paid the exmaination fees to the college, and I was hopeful they could help me get it back. I approached the best person I could - our class teacher.

He advised me to go to our College Registrar. The meet didn't go as expected because no one had yet approached with an unusual request of recovering money from the university. He asked me to write an application to the Principal, and come back later.

I wrote the letter, and when I went again, he pointed me to an office clerk who would help me. This was a classic Indian bureaucratic process which had no end except perhaps that the 3rd person I approached after the registrar, replied that they just gave the money to the university and it would be a very tedious process to get it back. He was basically implying that no one gave a shit about my money, neither the college, nor the university.

I waited until so many days because I was hopeful of some solution. I'm now desolate because I know, nothing will happen. This massive clusterfuck of the Indian education system will work as it always did - or did not.

After I appeared for all the remaining exams, I waited for the result again. I passed, but guess what? It was my friend who failed this time...

/rant.