Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar voiced his discontent with the compulsory 75 per cent attendance rule prevalent in all colleges of the State saying that the requirement seems to be giving the purpose behind it a run for money.
Speaking at the launch of the Confederation of Indian Industries’ (CII) ‘Knowledge Connect’ project, Parrikar said that he would take up the issue with the Goa University. “I will take up the issue with GU also. GU rules say if you don’t have 75 per cent attendance you cannot take your examinations. Why do we have examsIJ Is the exam conducted for attendance or for knowledgeIJ Then why 75 (per cent attendance is necessary)IJ If that was the case I would not have ever passed IIT because my attendance was only 50 per cent,” Parrikar said.
He however, cautioned students not to misuse his liberal ideas as he often used the time to sit in the institute’s library and that he would often miss the lectures as he was the only one in his hostel who had opted for metallurgy. “If lecture schedule was forgotten once, there was no one with whom I could cross check,” Parrikar said, adding that he did the next best thing; hit a library for four hours every night to make up for his missed classes and gain knowledge. “The library was my teacher... Reading helped me get good marks. May be if I was in class, I would have suffered from tunnel vision,” Parrikar said.
Citing an example from the banking sector, Parrikar also said that the system in India often kills professionalism. “If a loan appraisal officer there (in foreign banks) has a 100 per cent recovery rate or if it is more than 92 per cent, he is considered as a bad appraisal officer for purpose of loans. Their reasoning is that he does not take risks… But if a nationalised bank (officer) has a 92 per cent rate, he will have to face CBI for (the remaining) 8 per cent. We kill killer instinct because of many of such mechanisms,” Parrikar said.