Monday, December 15, 2008

Empty Spaces

Quiet halls ... empty classes ... confused few ... dimmed goals ... drowned plans ... crushed talents ... this is the current state of the NCC education branch in Tehran which I've been involved with during the past five years. It is an unfortunate ending ... probably the most unfortunate ending for a spark in space-time which provided a great opportunity for many to follow proper Information Systems related education. A vanishing spark which had it found a chance to make the smallest of fires, could have changed the education system in ways to make it more efficient. It just didn't happen.

My belief in the positive effects of this system did not vanish quite linearly throughout these years and I tried to form the un-achievable future till the last days which means the present. I have but a few experiences and hopes now. Experiences related to the tough job of teaching and the dynamics of an educational system and its complexities and all the little links which need to be strong in order to converge to a successful education institution, or at least all the things that can make it go wrong since this system never converged to the goal.

My only hope is that I could've had the slightest effect in the success of all the ones going up and the least negative effect on the ones going down through this system. (Up and Down in pure educational state space)

Would anyone or any event have been able to save this sinking ship? This is a big question which I've thought about many times and even discussed with many a lot, there are many guesses and assumptions which can only be tested in a different time at a different place, this one is already down. Some say the administration wasn't ideal, some say students had problems, some blame the government and some point it at the whole systems model from the source, all I know now is that education is very critical and hard to plan for and a good education system is just really hard to form, although not un-achievable, the main root problem I see in this case is the loss of love, loss of love in every layer, some layers lost it just sooner than others. Every spark can only survive on the strong foundation of love.

I feel a pitty here, I don't usually feel pitty for things I don't have control authority over, but in this case its just sad, I would've been quite ok if the past 5 years were a total mess with no output but thinking about the differences of this system with the ancient-malfunctioning standard higher education plans and all the talented individuals which were channeled in this system to reach better and higher opportunities in an almost efficient way and knowing how many more exist out there who could've had a similar chance is just an annoying thought.

Grab the tubes remaining ones, I've got to get in the boat, set sail for another ship, might not sink this time, one of them should reach the land, one of them will, just more strength is needed, more focus, more belief, persisting love.

The show must go on ...

6 comments:

Mohammad said...

I share your feelings. It was very sad when I saw Mashhad NCC gradually fading away. In the beginning there ware lots of hopes and ambitions. Alas!

Amir H. Fassihi said...

Dear Mohammad .. great to see you here .. yes I know what you have gone through over at Mashad too... and I know how much passion you showed ... well ... lets hope for the future ..

MNO said...

Yes you're right love is an important factor, but as a person who witnessed all the details of that system in Mashhad form early on I'm sure that there were at least 20 highly motivated students in that system. The bitter fact is that the system in Mashhad was more like a governmental intelligence system specialized in tapping into the social networks of students and trying to change their mindset of every single individual.

I personally believe that education must be self contained. By that I mean except the financial management which is of crucial importance all the rest of administration must be regulated by academics. people can have both administration roles as well as academic roles as a lecturer or supervisor. these are the types of people who are familiar with student's concerns. This was not the case in Mashhad.

Sorry to say this, but the dealers who were sometime in the house dealing business decided for no clear reason to start an educational institution and tried their best to rule it based on their malformed thoughts and misconceptions about educational systems.

They were highly efficient in destroying motivation, and if you do a closer analysis you'll see that the number of talented teachers and students has reduced exponentially through time.

We all tried to avoid such a sorrow, but the beauty is that we all learned lots important lessons.

Sorry for this long comment. It gets to be an emotional one to some extent. It is because I believe from deep inside my heart that it could have been all different and it could have been inspiring even for the government.

Anonymous said...

What I think youth needs is the desire to learn, thats what I see my friends (and perhaps me) don't have, they don't know why we/I/they should study, I believe if you give them that, they are able enough to reach the shores themselves, even without other's help.

As a suggestion, maybe you would talk about your ambitions and why they are so strong so others like me can learn how and why you sleep less and love.

Anonymous said...

You may not have control over the ending of Saramad, and what could’ve or should’ve happened don’t matter anymore. What matters is what you did for the NCC and the ones who were studying there. The fact is you did so much for everyone who took your courses. There were some that didn’t even like programming before taking your classes and you inspired them to do things that could change their future. So I guess it’s safe to say we all owe you a thank you for that.

Anonymous said...

It's the final countdown...