It was common knowledge that there was no particular age for children to encounter the pressure to gain the highest marks in their classes. These ages ranged from five to nineteen years old. In fact, I personally know that children start working to achieve the best marks or grades before they even
begin their primary schooling. For instance, when the children begin their first grade in the primary school, the children and the parents are already aware of marks or grades. As a result, Shahula explained that it was a community problem that has existed in the Maldivian culture for a long-time. … in our community, not only in this school, everyone searches the report books for the final marks. Sometimes, I think the parents also check out what happens in other schools too. [Shahula]
The parents worried so much about marks and grades that they would be asking every little detail of their children‘s actions at the schools by the end of the day. For example, during the end of the day in the schools, parents asked the teachers why there was no written work in the schoolbooks. The teachers said that parents checked the schoolbooks during the time they came to fetch their children and used to complain about that. Therefore, the teachers told me that they had to show that the students did a worksheet or a group activity instead of work in their school books/workbooks.
I knew this was something the parents complained about years ago and I am not surprised to find such influences still exist in these schools. For instance, when parents find out the teachers have not given written work; they think their children have not studied in school that day. For such reasons, many schools advise teachers to make sure they give at least some work to do in
the exercise books. According to the teachers, such complaints had led them to give unnecessary home work and weekend assignments to their students. For example, Fazla talked about how concerned parents became when they found out there was no written work.
...when there is no work done in the school exercise books, parents will ask questions every day, such as why the child has not done any work. If the child has learned anything or if the child did any work in the class. Then, I have to show the work displayed on the walls or the work sheets that they have completed. [Fazla]
When the work of the students‘ was shown to the parents, many parents would even check the displayed work on the wall and from the worksheets; they would further go to the extreme of finding out if their children had learned the concept well that day. When the parents checked the work displayed on the walls they also became concerned over their children‘s work. Fazla discussed how the parents observed various corrections of errors and how much concern the parents showed.
Normally parents find out the errors that children have done in their worksheets. For example, if there is a wrong sum, they always ask why the certain sum was wrong. [Fazla]
As the pressure of assessment continued, marks and grades were important, such that Shahula explained how the parents were not interested in checking out the progress sheet that they prepared to check literacy and numeracy development of the students. These sheets were prepared to show how the students had progressed throughout the semester using teachers‘ observations and other formal and informal formative assessment techniques such as standards with rubrics.
..Parents do not have that much interest in finding out what happened in that progress sheet. They are more interested in finding out the grades in the final report form. [Shahula]
In the same way, Nahula said that parents usually used to get very concerned when their children scored low marks from assessment/test papers. She also felt that parents of students who scored well were more worried and they would find out the reasons for not achieving the top marks. Similarly, Heena referred to the competitive nature of the parents. Worriedly, she expressed how much the grade 1 students‘ parents became anxious, when their children did not score the best marks from the class assessment/test. For example, to avoid such circumstances parents made their children memorize the notes in the exercise/text books. Nevertheless, she was against pressuring small children for assessment/test and she further expressed concern.
… the grade one parents tell their children to get better marks than naming a particular child. Even if the child is not competitive, the children are forced to do so to make their parents happy. In that case, the children work hard to get the best marks to show their parents. [Heena]
In fact, the parental pressure encouraging students to get the best grades and marks could explain the demand for the coloured ―stars‖. All the three teachers expressed how the schools usually awarded stars, badges, and certificates for achievements in the lower grades. As a result, at that age of six years, the importance of winning had become part of their life. Here Asma explains:
We add all the marks and we divide it from the number of assessment and get the final grade. When the child gets all A‘s in the report card, that child will be awarded a star from the school every term. [Asma]
These conversations with participants revealed some of their varying beliefs on assessment. For instance, Rafa‘s concern was about teachers and parents concentrating on grades and marks, instead of developing their different skills. In reality, she wanted to make parents believe skilled based learning was more important than a mark or a grade written in a report card.
According to Rafa these beliefs would change when formative assessment is implemented effectively in Maldivian schools.
In the previous chapter (Chapter 4), it was specified how the teachers counted number of A‘s, B‘s, C‘s or D‘s. In fact, teachers did not like to have even a C, D, or E grade in their assessment records. Thus, it was not surprising to find Nahula teaching to the test in her remedial class. Nahula says, ―…. if there is going to be an English test, I teach the students for the test‖.
I have noticed, teachers wanted all A‘s in their class assessment records and surprisingly the assessment records showed almost the whole class had A‘s for the subject final except for one or two students. In fact, this was something I had done years ago as a teacher with my colleagues. It brought memories of how desperate I was for my students to get all ‗A‘s in the tests and examinations. As such, Nahla and Asma gave a clear description of how they both graded the papers.
That will be the final marks for that paper. But as the assessments are continuous, we add all the marks to get the total. For example even if a student scores less in one assessment , that student has the opportunity to improve in the next assessment to get all A‘s in the
final . So there are many students who get all A‘s as the final mark. [Nahula]
In the checklists, there will be different parts to give marks. We give points and a grade to the total. There are no marks in students‘ papers. The papers are graded but if a parent wants to see marks, they are able to see the total marks. We show them with the checklist and explain that this is how their child has achieved marks for different parts of the paper. [Asma]