Exam Malpractice – the Parent Angle

It is me again. If you have been following our previous discussions, you might be wondering where I will be starting from today. It’s time we look at the parent’s angle. It is a thing of pride for your child to graduate from high school with great grades. Most especially if you are sure of the hard work and commitment the child and school put into attaining this. Far beyond academic excellence however, is character building, interpersonal skills and spiritual formation, which are all values and virtues worth developing.

As a parent, how do you detect that your child’s school is up to no good with the academics? It starts with the grading system. I once changed my child’s school due to proximity but I later regretted the move. I knew he was an average student but then suddenly, he started scoring in the upper 80% on every subject. Even French that he hates with a passion! I sought an audience with his class teacher and asked to see his last test papers, giving the excuse that I was concerned about the way he always answered questions, and because of that, I was trying to help him improve on it at home. Going through his papers, it became apparent that this school was not one that would ever fail any child. So what would happen to the teaching of morals? Will children not be scolded where necessary? Unfortunately there are bound to be some parents out there who would like this idea, but not me. If you truly love your child you should assess his/her ability and compare with what he/she scores and see if it adds up. I don’t need a child genius who can’t mingle with his peers or share in ongoing conversations or cannot just behave as a child should.