Absent

(Our discussion continued.)

“You really shouldn’t be to critical with the extra-terrestrials,” LS said, “Even if there are no elective students from the alternative universe, the situation would continue to get worse in the coming years.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because we shall have more medical students!” My friend rose her eyebrows, “And, I’m sure you know, we are not expecting more academic staff to shoulder our workload.”

Of course I know – and I know the official reason. Some brilliant chap said that since the number of academic staff was not trimmed down during the economic downturn a few years ago, we are already having a surplus of professors, and, for that reason, there is no reason to employ more despite we are going to have more students. I believe that wicked genius  is the same person who declared that agricultural product of our country could be increased indefinitely by will power.

Seeing that I was lost in my thought, LS added, “The real problem is, for a tutorial attended by eight students nowadays, we shall have twelve a few years later.”

“You shouldn’t be too worried,” I regained by consciousness and replied, “Our students are very good at skipping lessons – especially when they realize that the environment is not pleasant and there’s not much to learn!”

“Alas, in that case we should really encourage them to skip our lessons,” LS smiled, “In the old days, we took attendance to make sure students do attend the tutorial – and there might be consequence for those who disappeared often. In the future, we shall have to do it the other way round – if a student does not attend our tutorial, we shall give them a bonus score in the final examination!”