Representative imageOne month ago a girl and her father came to see me at the university. She had studied MA in English at a famous college under MG University. When the result came, the girl who scored A grade in all other papers failed in one paper with E grade. That was the complaint. “Sir, something happened during evaluation. Please enquire,” she said, bursting into tears. Her father said she had not slept or eaten anything since the results came.
When Malayala Manorama published news on this subject, revealing more details, an enquiry was conducted, which led to complaints of mass failure of 95 students in the same examination. This led to a situation where, for the first time in the state, evaluation of an examination was cancelled after the results were announced. When the university specially evaluated the answer papers of all the 95 students who complained, the result was shocking: 84 of them passed. Five of them got A grade, 25 got B grade and 54 passed with C grade.
This is an eye-opener. Did many of those who failed in the examination deserve it? Like the judiciary’s valued principle that even if a thousand guilty escape an innocent should not be punished, today, many students who should have passed in many of our examinations are receiving the punishment of failure.
What happens in evaluation of exam papers is the delivery of a verdict without retakes. The marks given by the teacher stays as something that cannot be questioned anywhere at any time. This verdict affects the future of many people, and it destroys life itself of some people. Though in small numbers, some even end their life.
A good percentage of our teachers are dedicated and sincere. In each student’s life, there will be teachers whom they will remember with respect throughout their life. However, there are also teachers in society today who veer off from their responsibilities. The failure of a teacher can never be justified or seen as a light one, especially in evaluating answer papers. Studies that last for a year without breaks; students who turn night into day and learn; the state of mind of a student who fails unfairly in an examination; the mental agony of parents — what are the solutions for these?
What punishment should we give to that error of the teacher who scribbles something and finishes in less than three minutes the valuation of a paper that was written under tension over three hours in an examination hall after months of studies? The aforesaid incidents prove that such teachers exist in the society today. Evaluation of an exam paper is a duty that is many times more important and responsible than teaching. However, negligence, complacency and inattention can be seen in at least some people today. At least, some of them perform this duty very irresponsibly.
Such mistakes should not be repeated again. Transparency and trust in evaluation of answer papers should be ensured. Teachers should have great awareness about their responsibility. Also, they should be warned that if they fail in their responsibilities, there will be severe consequences. The only solution for this is to give the papers that have been evaluated back to the students. We have to accept this as the right of the student. Today, every Indian citizen has the right to know.
We should not deny to students the right to know how many marks they got for each one of the answers they wrote. Granting approval to the students’ right to know by returning the evaluated answer papers of all examinations from SSLC to post-graduation and entrance tests is long overdue.
(The writer is the vice-chancellor of MG University)
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