The Lost Watch

This May some students from MA Central Department of English collected money and purchased a golden color wall-watch for our class. Just after fourteen days of installation, the watch got stolen. It was right above the white board till Thursday evening and after two days of holiday, when we enter the class on Sunday; the watch was nowhere to be found. It’s not the first time, before also many watches have lost from different classes of central department. In other word we can say that we have long history of losing watch- if estimated the value of all stolen watches, I’m sure it would hit enough price, worth to register big asset lost complain in police. We wondered, amid the presence of hundreds of students at daytime, it’s impossible to steal the watch, either someone must have sneaked inside in off days or at night. So who is habituate to lurk around stealing properties from inside the University classes? The question is not about one lost watch, rather this incident covers larger picture of security management inside Central department of Tribhuvan University.

Property crimes have become an issue nationwide, and academic institutions too remain no exception. However Nepal Police crime statistics show less than two thousand burglaries reported in 2047/75, claiming that the case of theft has decreased. Actually, such crimes are happening rampantly around us and have become so normal that people pay no heed to report such small case of burglaries. Same like, we student never reported about the lost watches.

Similarly in recent years almost all faculties have shifted to semester system. And as the academic practice under semester, it will require overhead projector and laptop in each class. The University stands on edge to import such teaching practice. But the question arise, in the University space, where even the plastic jar and cheap Chinese watcher are vulnerable to burglaries, how can the security of other electric assets be ensured?

The end of semester is almost upon us, and with it will comes a horde of students leaving university to begin new life. It’s an electrifying time for them: a chance to try their wings as university graduates and walk solo in career space. But some bitter experiences as University student will always haunt and make them prone to have similar suspension in future workplace too. So the university should exercise proper management and security framework to minimize minor burglaries inside academic horizon.