Refreshing myself

The UGC believes one size fits all. To become an associate professor from an assistant professor two refresher courses are mandated. As many of the college teachers are not involved in active research, it makes sort of sense for by doing these courses they can upgrade their skills and learn something new. However, many of us in the Universities are required to do research work. We have research labs, we guide PhD students, we have to constantly think of experiments and keep ourselves updated On top of it, the University expects us to do refresher courses. Oh, please note that Delhi University teachers are not mandated to do this nonsense if they are involved in active research and are publishing papers.
There are 4 of us doing the refresher course. The resource persons/teachers/faculty for the course are from our department. And even if they are not, we know them. This leads to ridiculous and often embarrassing situations both for us and for the faculty. There are few who outright tells us not to attend the class because we will make them nervous. There are few who offer to learn our signatures and sign for us in the attendance sheet so that we do not have to trek to the Academic staff college to attend the lecture. There are few who refused to teach because we are attending the course. And then are few who enter the classroom and announce that they are feeling nervous because we are attending the class. One of them lost the plot and ended up giving a miserable lecture inspite of the fact that he is supposed to be a good teacher. The coordinator of the course, who is also from the department, is also angry and frustrated. We are supposed to attend the lectures and we are bunking them. The people who are attending the course are also angry and frustrated with us. After all who has given us the right to bunk the lectures? So one of the attendees tries to see every 15 minutes whether we are there or not.
For the first two weeks I was regular. It was not fair but hey, I signed up and I better do some justice. Last Thursday I gave up. I do not care who is angry and frustrated. You know what? I am angry and frustrated at having to waste 5 hours every day listening to bilge, stuff that I know all about. There were 4-5 lectures worth attending. I attended them. That is about it. I cannot do anymore.
But the good news is that the course is coming to an end. We have to give a 20 minute presentation, collect our certificates, and march out.
The bad news is that I have to do one more refresher course to complete the requirement for promotion.