Marks- a sealed fate?

We need to change the way we think about marks and grading

Last year, I was asked to be the guide for an American visiting student for her project work. This, to me, was a responsibility - not only to help the student to complete her project by providing her sufficient academic support, but also to pose enough questions to her, so that she remained motivated and challenged, and her learning curve remained upward.

This was a 4-month project, and I was surprised when, at the end of it, I was asked to evaluate her project and grade it. She was going to receive credits for her project, which would be included in the credits she would receive for her graduation from her university back home in the US.

To me, the successful (or otherwise) completion of her project was a reflection on me – how good (or bad) a guide I had been. How, then, could I evaluate her project?

When I asked this question of the program Director, she did not have a solution. To her credit, she accepted the fallacy in this method. What surprised me even further was when she told me that no one had asked her this question before.

I did end up grading her work, based on the extent to which the student had been able to complete her project. But the issue kept creeping back into my mind.

With marks or grades, it is as though, based on just one performance of a person, his fate is sealed.

- Vinita Tatke

Member, Education Board, Pune Municipal Corporation.