St Stephen's College principal Valson Thampu, who has been in the news for all the wrong reasons, on Wednesday said controversies had been the "grammar" of his tenure so far and he thoroughly "enjoyed" each of them.
Thampu, who had recently compared himself to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim claiming that he is being hounded like an animal, also said the college has been on a "sleeping mode" for long.
"Controversies have been the grammar of my service as the college has been subject to intense contestation during these years, but I have thoroughly enjoyed each of them till their last leg," he said while delivering a public lecture at the college on "A vision for education".
“Various people have come forward to say things about the college but no one has bothered to check their assumptions and presumptions about St Stephen's...I am afraid the college has been sleeping for quite a while now," he said.
He added that if he could be frightened, he would have rather joined some "national commission" and not the college.
Thampu joined the college in 1973. He pursued his studies, took up lectureship and became the principal of the college in 2008. He is due to retire from the post in February 2016.
He "apologised" to the nation for the high cutoff standard which keeps the most hardworking away from achieving the dream of studying in the "top most" college of the country.
While giving a lecture on "A vision for education" at the college on Wednesday, Thampu said, it is "sheer madness" and "cruelty" to tell only top school or university is scoring high marks.
"When will we tell our students about the actual delight of educationIJ No child enjoys learning. No one encourages them to learn from the other factors in a classroom or institution," he said. He said the goal of education should be enlightenment not employment.
Stressing on the need for coming together of academic communities to revise and renew their understanding and practice of education, Thampu said, "This is more important in a culture of alienation wherein individuals feel themselves alienated from the work they do, institutions they serve, their colleagues and even themselves. There is a need to reorient the education system from elitism and success to personal growth and social transformation."
"This will bring about a sea change in the way we practice education and we will have a healing effect on the maladies that plague academia at the present," he said.
Asserting that all educational instituions are invaded by a social and cultural "epidemic" at the present, the principal called for maintaining a wholesome academic environment across the instituions.
"The key factors in maintaining such an environment could be stature and character of teachers, student teacher relationship, values upheld by the instituion and its efforts in becoming a place of growth for all its stakeholders," he said.
"It is easy to poison the environment but a healthy environment is certainly by the stature of teacher. In St. Stephen's College, English is the medium of instruction and student-teacher relation is the medium of education," he added.