Indira Narayan
S. Indira Narayan is an educationist with more than 35 years of rich experience in the teaching field. She has held multiple portfolios. She has been associated with St. Ann’s High School, ICSE, ISC, Secunderabad, for over three decades, teaching English language and English literature for classes 10, 11 and 12. The last portfolio she held was as Academic Coordinator, St. Ann's High School, at Kompally Hyderabad, under the same management.
Indira Narayan has conducted numerous workshops for school teachers and continues to do so. She is also interested in writing and blogs regularly on http://vinplaksha.wordpress.com/
Do marks decide the intelligence level of a student? Unfortunately, the answer is probably a YES and it won’t be wrong either, judging by how society pays importance to it. Marks I feel, are not the yardstick of success; they may be an important factor for seeking admissions in schools and colleges, especially the so-called, high-end temples of learning, where a cut off mark is high and mandatory.
Rote learning has become a bane of examinations. It assures a good score but ‘learning’ in the true sense of the word is more often than not missing. The confidence good marks give a student shadows his or her preparedness for the real world. Sometimes, they become misfits as their knowledge and awareness are thwarted, being limited to their books. Let me hasten to add that the details above are not to demoralise attaining good marks or dampen the spirit of an academic achiever. The focus is to assure average students not to allow marks throw a blanket on their other positive points, other talents, their likes and dislikes. Look around and you will be surprised to find the so called ‘mediocre students’ of your class or elsewhere, are doing very well for themselves career wise and lifestyle wise.
Our education system is divided into compartments called board exams, university exams and competitive exams; all crucial in their own way in deciding a student’s future. For many, it is very important indeed and a setback here leads to several other problems like depression, disinterest to try again, motivation going downhill, branding oneself as a failure, etc. This happens because society gives a lot of importance to marks and indirectly to the student. Peer group acceptance becomes a priority.
The initial step where marks are given importance to, is the classroom and the class tests. Students with a competitive spirit will like to know how the other good students have fared; and then a subtle, but real comparison awakens which could encourage a superiority complex or an inferiority one. Yes, on the other side there should be a competition amongst children, but it should be a healthy one where the good performance of one child motivates another child to do well.
This single word ‘marks’ generates a vast scope of discussion. They will always be lodged in the ‘I fear’ compartment of the mind. A good student will want to confirm his/her confidence in doing well; the average student will fear getting marks lesser than expected (by whom?); the student who regularly fares low will fear rebuff at home. The discussion on marks has seen many experts give their opinion- many articles written on this subject, many suggestions given to handle poor marks, and the list goes on.
How can teachers be mindful?
I would like to express my suggestions on how a teacher can be mindful when distributing answer sheets after a test or an exam. I don’t tire in repeating that a class is a healthy mix of students: the intelligent, the average, the below average and the ‘I give up’ cases. Most students are anxious to know how they have fared in their tests or class exams and often ask the concerned teacher if she has corrected their papers; sometimes the very next day the test was conducted! In this group, the most enthusiastic are the ones who often do very well in their studies.
When giving out the answer sheets, it would be nice if the teacher can fold the sheets such that the marks are not visible and hand it over to the pupil personally (ask the students to come to her desk and take it).
An organised teacher will keep the answer sheets in the order of the role number before distributing them in the class. Makes it easier and less noisy. This method of distributing the papers is a way of respecting the identity, in my view, as not all children would want to give out their marks to a class. They would possibly tell their close friends about how much they got.
After entering marks in her marks book, a teacher may want to verify from the students if their marks have been entered correctly. The class teacher will enter marks of all the subjects of her class students in her personal register before making the reports. Some teachers call out the marks in the class.
Whether in a book or on a sheet of paper with the required columns, the teacher can spread the sheet on her table, call each student (roll number wise), place a scale under their marks and allow the pupil to see his/her marks and check. The marks of the students in the above or below row can be kept hidden with a book or a blank sheet. There will be no hard feelings or embarrassment in the minds of the average and below average performers.
As already mentioned in the early part of this article, we have to accept that intelligence of a person is unfortunately determined by the marks obtained and a this does impact the average student. My suggestions are given mainly to help a sensitive student who does not fare well in studies, keep his self-respect. Let the achievers, the top scorers feel good by the teacher reading out their marks to the class. This becomes a motivation and a benchmark for others to move towards the better. Good, average, below average, whatever the performance, it should be the endeavour of a teacher to make the good better and the better the best. While down the line, encourage the average to move towards working for better grades. Help and guide them to raise the bar, dear teachers.