"Revise grades according to trouble", the power of teachers is declining, the power of parents is inflated, why is the dignity of education trampled?

Tencent Education

2024-05-18 09:52Published on the official account of Beijing Tencent News Education Channel

This is the "Education Weekly Insights" section of Tencent News Education Channel, where each issue will analyze and comment on hot topics, policy trends, or people's views in education in the past week.

Some time ago, colleges and universities in many places sent results to parents to attract everyone's attention, but I didn't expect that this wave of operations was actually a university lifting a stone to shoot itself in the foot.

In mid-May, a teacher at a university in Xi'an reported to the media that in the final exam of the course he took, some parents of students found that their children's grades had failed, and threatened the teacher to revise their grades on the grounds of "affecting the child's future" and "causing stains".

The leadership of the college also hinted to the teacher several times that the student's parents had a background. Finally, after the make-up examination for the failed student, the failed student "passed".

What is even more outrageous is that another student in this school failed the make-up exam, and other teachers in the school overtook the teacher in charge to revise his grades for him, citing the reason of "saving the student".

Both incidents occurred at the same school, both of which were motivated by student achievement, but involved excessive parental intervention and even touched on the more subtle side of higher education.

Is it an easy thing to revise grades?

In the above incident, one of the students was worried about his future and asked for a revision of his grades, while the other was a graduate student who had already been admitted to graduate school and was worried that the failed grades would have an impact on his future development, so he jumped off the building and threatened the teacher to revise them.

It is not difficult to see that the purpose of revising the grades is to make the transcript look good and not leave a stain on the future.

Tencent Education contacted Professor Yuan Fang of Beijing City College, and based on his more than 20 years of teaching experience, he has not encountered a similar request from parents to revise his grades.

Almost all schools have a strict process for entering and verifying grades, and no one can afford to be sloppy when it comes to students' futures.

Although different schools have their own regulations, under normal circumstances, students are not allowed to modify the grades entered into the academic affairs system, if they really need to be modified, the student must submit an application, go through the process of approval in the academic affairs office, and then review by the teacher. It wasn't a parent's phone call in the incident that was changed just as he said it would. If the grades are revised, it may be a good thing for students, but it is an educational accident for marking teachers and substitute teachers.

Therefore, the teacher in the incident insisted that the grades were correct and did not revise the grades, on the one hand, to maintain the fairness of the exam, and on the other hand, it was also out of self-protection.

It can be seen from the serious handling of the incident of Xi'an University of Science and Technology on the revision of student grades.

For example, if it is determined that the teaching clerk Zhang has a teaching accident at a certain level, he will be given a demerit punishment and transferred from his original post; It was determined that the course leader Chen had a third-level teaching accident and was removed from the position of the course leader; It was determined that the vice dean in charge of teaching had a third-level teaching accident and was given a warning; gave the dean Li Moumou a warning; Yin Moumou, secretary of the party committee of the hospital, was given a demerit sanction.

Student transcripts are not trivial and should have strict systems and procedures. This is not only to protect the interests of students, but also to protect the dignity of education. Otherwise, it is not impossible for students or teachers to ask for their own scores to be higher and others to be lower in the case of conflicting interests.

How much water are the grades in college?

The "correction of grades according to the noise" has made the public see how good the grades of some universities really are, and has raised doubts about higher education.

Chen Zhiwen, editor-in-chief of China Education Online, told Tencent Education that Xi'an University of Science and Technology, as an old undergraduate university, is much higher than many universities in terms of student quality and education quality.

University grades are generally composed of usual grades and test scores, the usual grades are given by teachers according to the course performance, and the test scores are the students' paper scores, each accounting for different proportions, constituting the final grades of students.

Some colleges and universities have conducted questionnaire surveys on students of different majors, and the results show that 54.55% of the students choose "the teachers of compulsory courses will mark the key points before the final exam", 30% of the students said that all the teachers will mark the key points, and only one percent of the students encounter the teachers who do not focus on the courses.

The grades of college students depend on whether the teacher has a key point or not, and whether there is much water in the marking papers. There was once a university teacher on the Internet who ridiculed that grading is a test for university teachers, because it is necessary to let students just reach 60 points.

As a result, college students live long for 60 points in school, but after graduation, they have "high scores and low ability", and college degrees are becoming more and more depreciated.

Chen Zhiwen also mentioned that students' grades are getting better and better, which is actually related to the national conditions and culture of the mainland. The developed countries in the West have long achieved the popularization of higher education, but the graduation rate is very low. At present, higher education in mainland China has achieved "wide entry", but it is difficult to achieve "strict exit".

Many children fail the exam and cannot get the graduation certificate, and the parents do not agree, especially in the face of students and parents who are forced to die, the school can only comply.

One manifestation of the increasing performance of college is the inflated scores, and the reason for the inflated scores is that the whole school and society still practice the "score-only" standard of measurement.

Parents and students believe that low scores mean "a bleak future" and "a stain on life", because scholarship evaluation is based on grade points, graduate students need to look at grade points for re-examination, and now individual companies have to look at university transcripts when looking for jobs.

Because the current social evaluation system is still bound to scores, and without high scores, it is impossible to enter the threshold, so schools and students have found another way to jointly raise scores.

Only when the social evaluation standards are more diversified and no longer take grades as the only criterion, then parents will not "talk about color change".

Chen Zhiwen believes that mainland higher education should follow the example of other countries and issue graduation certificates at different levels according to their grades, such as honorary graduation certificates and ordinary graduation certificates at different levels.

The power of teachers is declining, and the power of parents is inflated

In this incident, a truth was also revealed, and the teacher's "power" may be the lowest.

The teacher tests the students' knowledge absorption and learning attitude through the examination, and it is the teacher's responsibility to mark the papers, so the grade is the teacher's "power".

However, in the case of "grades are modified according to trouble", parents can order or threaten teachers to change grades; The school can also ask the teacher to change the score, or even bypass the teacher and change the score directly.

A handwritten statement of student grade revision signed by a faculty member of Xi'an University of Science and Technology

The teachers who followed the rules to maintain the fairness of the exams were instead "stabbed in the back" by the school. By all indications, the teacher is at the bottom of the chain of contempt among the school-parent-teacher.

University teachers belong to the group of high-level intellectuals and are quite respected in society. But in fact, it is a sandwich biscuit, and if you are just a teacher who simply lectures, then you have to accept the management of the school bureaucracy, and the school administration can arrange your work at will.

It is worth mentioning that although the mainstream voice still believes that the relationship between teachers and students, and that teachers belong to the superiors, the right to evaluate teaching is in the hands of students.

In many universities, most students are willing to give high marks to teachers who give high marks on exams and are not strict in class; And those teachers who teach strictly and do not "please" their students are perennially at the bottom of the KPIs.

When teachers succumb to school administration, to parents, to students, what will happen to our higher education?

If this is still the case in an old undergraduate school like Xi'an University of Science and Technology, then the situation of undergraduate teachers in ordinary places may be even more worrisome.

The decline of the power of teachers is the expansion of the power of parents.

In the past, most of the news of parental intervention in schools occurred in elementary and middle schools, but today, college students as adults still do not grow up in the eyes of parents.

In the face of the child's failing grades, he doesn't ask the reason, doesn't care whether the child doesn't understand or doesn't study seriously, and blindly blames the teacher. Parents do not ask their children to study hard in the future, but directly ask the teacher to change the score to pass, once and for all.

When the interests are not successful, the fabricated facts also have to complain to the teacher, this parent himself is a "big child" who eats no candy and makes trouble.

Professor Yuan Fang of Beijing City University believes that the reason why college students are called college students is because they are natural persons with independent civil acts, and they have to handle their own studies and lives.

Parents will take care of school affairs on behalf of their children, and they will also develop a new generation of "giant babies" in the future. It not only disrupts the fairness and justice of teaching, but also lays a minefield for children's future development.

The absurd incident of "modifying scores according to the alarm" has sounded the alarm bell for higher education, and the fairness and transparency of education requires the rationality of schools, teachers, and parents in order for children to thrive.

College grades are not "modified according to trouble", and college teachers are not at the mercy of others, and college students should handle their own affairs independently.

Here are some other events to watch out for in the past week:

Associate professor of Nanlin University committed suicide after failing to pass the first appointment period, relatives and friends: he suffered from depression and high work pressure

Xiao Shengchu secretly pinched his own enrollment, and the heads of two schools in Beijing were interviewed

Academia is wholesale "water academicians"

28 students' overseas doctoral dreams shattered Xi'an Sports Institute: It is recommended to go through judicial procedures to defend their rights

With a monthly income of 40,000 yuan, supply exceeds demand! Why is the child growth companion popular?

The post-80s accompanying mothers in rural areas are under great mental pressure, and they have been unable to leave the family for more than ten years after accompanying the second child

Past Issues:

Smashing figurines and throwing comics, why is Zhao Juying's "bullying education" marketable?

From "no bed curtains" to "parent associations": high school is not a good sign

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