Primary and secondary school exams: a responsibility of all [Archives:2008/1169/Community]
By Majed Thabet Al-kholidy
All of us have heard of the various means devoted to the success of primary and secondary and school examinations, the purpose of which is to achieve success not in only completing this process peacefully, but to achieve the ultimate aim of the examinations.
Exams are a means to evaluate students' educational level. This contributes to producing educated and qualified personnel who, in one way or another, will help develop our nation in numerous aspects. If this exam goal fails, there will be no educated or qualified personnel and, as a result, no any attempts to develop “our poor country.”
Educational success is the foundation stone to developing a country and this stone foundation largely depends upon successful examinations. The authorities attempt to achieve this, but they sometimes don't. Nevertheless, each of us is responsible for the success of the exam process.
What astonishes me and many others is that many families do their utmost to ensure that their sons and daughters pass their exams, doing so by spending a lot of time and money to offer what they term “assistance.”
Let's consider some examples in which families try, as they believe, to help those students taking primary or secondary exams.
For example, some parents attempt to get to know the staff who will observe their children's examinations. They do this before exams begin either to attempt to establish relationships with them or sometimes replace them with others.
Such parents spend large amounts of time and money only for this, claiming that they're “helping,” without realizing the negative impact on their children's future, as well as the entire nation.
In another case, some parents accompany their children to the examination center on the first day of exams for the sole purpose of offering help, sometimes not knowing whether their sons and daughters actually need such help or not.
Once at the exam center, such parents use every possible means to contact their children inside the examination hall, sometimes paying the head of the center or security guards to let them into the hall, where they then offer the observers money to let the students cheat.
Parents also sometimes bring teachers with them to answer their children's exams questions. The answers then are passed to the students either by the parents themselves, security guards, the exam observer or even the head of the examination committee.
Some parents also prove to be extremely sincere and helpful to their children following exams, for which they've made every attempt to help the students, continuing to offer their “assistance” afterward by paying not just security guards or exam observers, but some (I'm sure it's not all) educators, who promise parents that they'll do many things to ensure that their children pass their exams with high scores.
And they keep promising as they take money from these parents. What's interesting is that these educators always claim that such funds are to be paid for the sake of other higher ranking educators with more authority, but do such individuals really do anything for these students?
If these educators actually don't do anything, that's really funny for these parents who usually repeat this every year because they always search for such persons, although they doubt them at times.
On the other hand, if these educators really do something for these students, it's a real crisis within the field of education because such educators are responsible for acting against the law and moral principles; therefore, they should be blamed and punished.
However, parents also are to be blamed for their misunderstanding and all such behavior, which shows their ignorance of their children's educational levels. By doing such things, they also inadvertently encourage their children and those who care for them to grab as much money as possible via such fruitful methods.
I'm sorry to say all of this, but it's the simple reality of numerous instances that have happened in previous years. I'm not here to attack anyone, but rather to reveal the negative impacts of such acts, which are telling about the individual, society and our nation as a whole. All of us should be aware of this so that our education sector can improve its procedures and outcomes.
Majed Thabet Al-kholidy is a writer from Taiz, currently doing his M.A. at English Dep, Taiz Uni. He is an ex-editor of English Journal of the University.
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