NO BALL'
SAID THE PRINCIPAL!
The case
Unmukt Chand the Captain of the U- 19 team was in news. The young
promising cricketer won the U – 19 World cup for India in the
recently concluded championship in Australia. He studies in the
prestigious St' Stephen's College , New Delhi, and was admitted in
the college on the basis of sports quota. Prestigious colleges such
as the St' Stephen's and St' Xavier's enroll outstanding sports
students in order to encourage sports and to utilize the abilities to
strengthen their own sports teams. This is the policy of the
University as well.
Chand however
could not attend college as he was playing the World cup and prior to
that the Ranji Trophy, Vijay Hazare Trophy, coaching camp etc. He
missed more than 100 days of college thereby falling short in
attendance to appear in the semester examination.
There was
an eruption and uproar on TV soon after the news reached everywhere
specially TIMES NOW wherein Arnob Goswami was conducting the debate
on the matter. In the panel were the principal of St' Stephen's
college Rev Valson Thampu, the ex- principal of the Hindu college
Mrs Sharma, Ajay Mkhan the sports minister, Kirti Azad the ex
-cricketer/ MP/student of St' Stephen's college and two other
persons. Naturally, Arnob Goswami expresssed surprise at the decision
of the principal not to allow the National hero from appearing in the
semester exams for lack of attendance. He along with the sports
minister and Kirti Azad argued that students with exceptional sports
abilities should be encouraged and rewarded, whereas the college was
punishing a young student for having brought laurels for the country.
More so when a student is a sports entry the college should expect
him to be away on sports activities. The principal initially
expressed his helplessness and quoted the policy of the university in
such matters , however what was appalling were his comments when
Chand's issue was brought in front of him , which Arnob Goswami read
out -' there is no sense of proportion regarding sports in
our country, in our country we tend to go overboard
with regard to sports , I
don't watch these cricket matches because you never know which is a
fixed match. We have seen all the muck
during commonwealth games.' The above comments are totally
unrelated to the matter, but nevertheless these were originated from
the principal which indicates his mindset. Kirti Azad narrated his
days when he used to be away on tour and how his teachers always
encouraged him and arranged notes and held special classes so that he
managed to pass the exams,Mrs Sharma stated that in such cases
special permission of the university could be taken , she also noted
that when participation in NSS and sports is part of the curriculum,
then there should not be any restriction on such students
Finally,
finding himself cornered the principal stated that he will try to
help the student but the student should approach him, which I found
very odd and bureaucratic . I wondered that Stephen being such a
renowned college should avoid such controversies, but from the
statements and stance of the principal it appeared to me that he
perhaps engineered this dispute in order to be in news himself, his
remarks on sports are evident of the same. I am inclined to believe
that such people look for controversy to be famous, lacking ability
in themselves they intend to undermine the talent of deserving
students and in fact are unfit for educational institutions where
breadth of thinking and original ideas are to be encouraged. In the
present times when liberal education is practiced and curriculum are
designed based on the request of the students in many universities abroad, such attitude is
outdated. The fact that he did not stay till the end of the debate
speaks of his convictions.
As I am writing this the news has poured
in that Chand has been promoted by the university's vice -chancellor
which is welcome, it exposes the ridiculous approach of the
principal too.
I am a
product of St' Joseph's Allahabad and Dehradun and have watched
closely the many schools in Dehradun, such as the famous Doon School.
In schools such as ours sports was our hall mark and our schools were
known for their playing fields. Still whenever I visit Doon and pass
through the Rajpur road I marvel the largeness of our three main
playing grounds in front of the main building, there were two fields
behind too and a separate hockey field . The Doon school devotes its
afternoons to sports only.
It is in the
playing grounds that we build our character.
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