Prof Razi Abedi was once asked, “Why does an examiner award 39 marks in CSS essay paper when the passing marks are 40?” He wittingly smiled and said, “Because s/he is mean!”

Such miscalculated moles are a frequently encountered site in our education system. Teachers, if not always mean, are often biased; and in the absence of checking rubrics, it is not possible to separate one from the other. Analysing the passing ratio in CSS exams makes one think how come only a few hundred among the thousands of graduates have passed the written exam. How come thousands of candidates with illustrious degrees have been unable to prove their mettle even after years of dedicated study for the competitive exams? Why does a candidate pass a subject one year and flunk the same next time? Where is the fault line?

Governor Mohammad Sarwar, as the pro-/chancellor of universities, has made it incumbent on universities in the Punjab to share the evaluated answer scripts with the students. The worthy authority is oblivious apparently of the Pandora’s box thus opened and the vicious outcomes likely to erupt in no time. The order, though aiming at controlling and regulating the assessment methods, is going to give students undue control over the teacher as well as the institution.

Quality in ‘education’ depends on maintaining a balance between the input (what the institution and the teacher have to offer) and the output (what the student has received and learned) of education. Sadly, in semester system the output of transmitted knowledge and skills is assessed mostly by the transmitters of knowledge, aka teachers, themselves. Unfortunately, the output in annual system and competitive exams is measured by uninterested examiners whose red pens are racing against time.

The semester system, which was supposed to ensure quality education, has tarnished its lustre by making teachers the absolute authority on a student’s grades. In classrooms where the student-teacher ratio exceeds reason, in public institutions 60:1 and in private institutions 30:1, it is imprudent to expect the teacher to meet the weekly teaching workload as well as check answers to all the examinations and scrutinise the quizzes and assignments.

It is pertinent to mention here that no payment is made to permanent employees for this mammoth task; the visiting faculty are offered a meagre sum. In the absence of a monitoring system, a few will care to do justice to the task assigned while a majority will tend to abuse the privilege, when not knowingly then unconsciously.

Also, every other teacher is opinionated, judging the students by their English language proficiency, on the whiteness of their uniform or the brand of their attire and, worst of all, on their ability to butter up the teacher with semester-long obedience and unconditional support in office work and classroom management. Not to mention the prejudice which the ethnicity of a student invokes in the heart of a teacher.

The assessment gets topsy-turvy in case of external examiners. The in-house external examiners, the ones sitting in the Secrecy Branch, are allowed to mark some 100 papers a day. In a nine-hour long shift having 540 minutes means spending five to six minutes on one script, which may have one objective and four to seven subjective answers.

Often the grades that different teachers award to the same students lack consistency. Even changing the name on the same answer script can affect the grade. Besides, when the same teacher who taught a subject is asked to award marks to a class, s/he is compelled to be lenient to prove her/his calibre. At times it is the repute of an institution which is at stake; the Head of Department urges the teachers to be lenient so that no one fails and the overall result looks good.

The assessment gets topsy-turvy in case of external examiners. The in-house external examiners, the ones sitting in the Secrecy Branch, are allowed to mark some 100 papers a day. In a nine-hour long shift having 540 minutes means spending five to six minutes on one script, which may have one objective and four to seven subjective answers. The checking cycle takes a few weeks to a few months depending on the number of scripts divided by the number of examiners.

When it comes to freelance examiners, sitting at home with bundles of papers, no quality control is expected. The checking is whimsical, and they are only summoned when the marks for a question are placed against the wrong box.

At times teachers are untrained, at others careless. Never in my seven-year-long teaching career was I offered any guidelines for marking scripts or any rubrics to follow. Even as an external examiner the only thing I am handed over is the answer scripts and the question paper.

Lucky are those who are given a vague guideline on the passing criterion. The examiners usually learn from their mistakes and gain speed with experience. Our teachers are not only overworked but also underpaid. What will be the outcome when one answer script is worth Rs 30 or less? Not to forget that the payment is to take months to reach the teacher in need.

If the discussion on the professional behaviour and moral standards of teachers has not spun your head, here is the other, the more bleak, side of the picture. When it comes to re-checking, the students may (a) check if the marks are awarded against each question, without questioning the reason why a certain number is awarded, and (b) calculate if the total is correct. Rarely do marks increase in re-checking as it does not include re-evaluation of the marked papers.

The decision of the worthy chancellor is vague as it does not entail what a student may do in case of discrepancies in marking. Also, what the institution is to do in case a student takes pictures of the marked paper and post them on social media to voice concerns over the teacher’s bias? What if the teachers as well as the authorities are bullied, seduced or emotionally blackmailed into increasing the marks to evade the worst consequences? We admit that the teachers are not guiltless, but we also understand that some students can be malicious.

In a society where, for economic gains, ethics are frequently compromised and morals shifted, the one who thinks that the pedagogue, the only person who is burdened with the expectations of acting as a role model, would unconditionally remain dutiful is living in a fool’s paradise. No teacher, whether myself or any other, is clean-handed when ‘asked’ to mark hundreds of answer scripts within a week. Also, we are fools to think that our sick-of-hard-work students would not use the orders to their advantage.

It is still hoped that a more comprehensive roadmap is chalked for the varsities to follow so that the teachers may be monitored and the students prevented from abusing the system.

The writer is an   Assistant Professor of English at FGEIs,
Ministry of Defence, and also has a YouTube   channel — Learn English with
Fatima. She can be reached at learnenglishwithfatima@gmail.com