Please release term test results!

Teachers have become news makers these days, not the hardworking students. July is a month where most students have to cram all their lessons within this period so as to obtain decent grades at school. But the anxiety within students mounts when teachers take their own cool time marking question papers. Most often in the recent past, students have had to wait in suspense till the results were released to them only after the school holidays.   

This practice will now end with the Education Ministry Secretary Sunil Hetttiarachchi giving instructions to all school principals and provincial education secretaries to ensure that term test results are released to students before they begin their school holidays.   

What has prompted the Education Ministry Secretary to take such action are the several complaints received regarding the delay in releasing term test results.   
This move by Hettiarachchi must be commended because in the recent past teachers have had time to engage in protests and take time off work. There are schools where some teachers are noticeably absent on quite a number of days during the year. As a result teachers have had difficulties in covering the syllabuses; an act which puts the poor students under undue pressure.   

Teachers mustn’t forget the fact that their chargers are children and there is a limit to the pressures they can take. Apart from this, children also feel the heat when their parents demand good grades from them. Often these delays in releasing term test results choke students and their parents, largely because the latter can’t then assess the performances of children. Parents are spending lavishly on their children’s education and have a right to know the exam results of their children at the earliest.   

According to Ceylon Teachers’ Union Secretary Joseph Stalin as many as 300,000 principals and teachers were expected to launch an island-wide strike action on July 26 (Thursday) in protest against 1014 questionable reappointments in the teaching profession. However, thanks to President Maithripala Sirisena, a discussion he had with union leaders had compelled these teachers to call off the strike temporarily. It is said that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had also spoken to the President with regard to the grievances of the teachers. Just imagine the plight of students if such a large number of teachers took time off their busy schedules at their respective schools.   

It is also apt to mention here the attitude of some teachers who are a terror at school. But strangely students find these teachers to be quite nice and approachable when they attend their private tuition classes. These teachers are quite content teaching the bright ones at school, the workplace that pays them their salaries. If these teachers have time for weak students it’s only at their private tuition classes where parents have to spend through their noses to pay the monthly fees!   

Teachers are powerful. Some are extremely powerful. These teachers’ unions have given them bargaining power. Characteristics like love and care which were largely associated with teachers have been now replaced by new features like power and ambition.   

In the past teachers were humble and humane and loved it when students, who were driven by ambition, came to them. Most of these students were bright and the teachers went out of their way to educate them about the importance of being selfless and responsible citizens. Now it seems that the present lot of teachers must be taught these important characteristics.   

Teaching at present seems to be a profession where one takes a lot and gives a little. However there is still a sizable percentage of teachers who are committed to this noble profession and regard the students as children of their own. Some of these teachers might also be members of teachers’ unions. It’s interesting to see whether these teachers, who can set an example to the others, will hold their heads high during these disruptive times in the education sector.