Are We Educating Children or Just Generating Marks?
A recent incident at a highly reputed school has brought to light a deeply concerning trend in our modern education system: the prioritization of marks over actual learning, and the shielding of incompetence behind school bureaucracy.
During a recent examination, an invigilator—a language teacher—was found openly explaining the question paper to the students in the exam hall. Specifically, the teacher was reading aloud and translating an "unseen passage." By its very definition, an unseen passage is designed to test a student's independent reading comprehension. A school coordinator passing by noticed this blatant violation of exam integrity and immediately, yet respectfully, stepped in to stop it.
Common sense dictates that "a stitch in time saves nine." If a school leader witnesses academic malpractice, they must possess the authority to nip it in the bud. However, rigid school policies often state that unless a teacher falls directly under a specific coordinator’s department, no direct intervention should occur. Instead, one is expected to follow a lengthy chain of command. But while waiting for the "proper authority" to arrive, the integrity of the examination is already ruined. We must ask ourselves: is it a sound administrative policy to let a wrong continue simply to satisfy bureaucratic protocols?
This incident points to a much larger crisis in commercialized education. Today, parents are paying exorbitant fees for premium schooling. These institutions pride themselves on selective admissions, admitting children only after rigorous testing. Yet, if the syllabus for a test consists of merely a single chapter—taught, summarized, and tested by the very same teacher—why is there a need to spoon-feed the answers during the exam itself? If the ultimate goal is just to keep parents happy with falsely inflated grades, schools might as well send the question papers home for students to submit at their leisure. Sadly, the bitter truth is that many parents today are content with high marks, turning a blind eye to whether any real learning has taken place.
The most alarming aspect of this incident, however, was the aftermath. Instead of accepting responsibility for compromising the exam, the teacher rushed to the Principal’s office shedding crocodile tears. Playing the victim, the teacher complained that the intervening coordinator had breached departmental boundaries, thereby insulting the teacher's dignity. By passing the buck and hiding behind technicalities in the school's reporting policy, the educator successfully diverted attention from their own academic dishonesty.
It is profoundly disappointing to witness educators refuse accountability and resort to institutional politics to cover up their mistakes. If we allow egos and rigid hierarchies to overshadow ethics, and if we continue to hand-hold students merely to manufacture good report cards, we are failing the next generation. It is high time schools remember that their primary duty is to build character and impart knowledge, not just to act as pleasing service providers for fee-paying parents
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Sincerely,
Dr. Rahul Pratap Singh
Educator and author