Registration deadline for the next academic year is around the corner and they call it online registration, which should be fast and efficient, right? But if you ask me, we spend more time lining up now than we used to before the introduction of this online registration.

To most people, online registration means doing everything from the comfort of wherever you are but, in our case, it actually means personally lining up at school while our so-called computer typists sluggishly fill in our data.  It beats one’s understanding when you see computer science and computer engineering students in the line as well.

Well, to put the online part aside, this whole process is so hectic; moving from one office to another.  

As many students are worried about the length of the whole process, others are worried about the envelopes they spend the whole day carrying around. Actually, there’s more paperwork than during my days in high school. To make it worse, every student has to carry their marks from last semester with them for verification and completion of the registration process.

It’s only during this period that you encounter a colleague you last saw a month or so ago greet you for two seconds and sprint away. As everyone is carrying their brown envelopes containing everything, others have nothing at all but a shapeless stomach. You look at someone and his stomach for some reason has very sharp edges. Only to find it’s the file that he is hiding there.

Others have so many repeats almost equaling their passes and they have been telling everyone how they passed so well in their last semester. As I walk through the hallway, between offices, I see a little boy arguing with his elder brother about why he lied to their parents and the little brother is threatening to break his nose if he says a word about his miserable marks. 

As you are next in the line, you find someone pleading with the online director for his marks to be changed. As if that is his job. People are waiting and someone thinks his marks can be changed and he is allowed to register just like that. He pleads until they send him out. Guess what? Those are about 45 minutes of waiting.

And then when everything is done and a smile is finally covering my face, I hear a couple of boys laughing behind me about how many marks I got in the easiest module. They laugh so hard until I see one boy directly behind me peeping at my papers. That’s when I take off before other people join the party and the spread the news.

campus.inspector@newtimes.co.rw