THE COURTROOM

The Courtroom

PUBLICISING STUDENTS’ GRADES: NECESSITY OR TRAVESTY?

Publicising of students’ grades: a travesty…

With the coming of the 21st century and a higher technological advancement than has ever been possible in the global world, a lot of systems which had previously been normalized so deeply are now undergoing extensive rearrangements. There are many examples of this. One of such is the Email versus WhatsApp. In the 70's, the Email was seen as the fastest means of communicating globally. Nowadays, the application, WhatsApp, has made this seem even easier.

This could also be applied to the publication of results in Nigerian universities. In schools like ObafemiAwolowo University, the once usual system of publicizing results on the notice boards for all and sundry to view has now been replaced by a more sophisticated system, in which there is a special website for result viewing and where only the said student and whoever they choose to tell, know the student's results.

However, some schools, like the University of Ibadan, insist on clinging to this geriatric system, apparently unaware of the fact that it creates a social divide among students and makes some students the unwanted focus of attention for their many, admiring peers when these students score admirably high in exams.

Publicizing of results, apart from leading to low self-esteem issues regarding those who do not score high enough, also impact those that score high marks too. Some students who score high marks, after getting their results published, suddenly become the focal point of all their course mates. This could cause anxiety and even depression in some cases, because, as studies show, most creative and intelligent people often struggle with self-doubt. When results are publicized in that manner, and other course mates are made to expect more from them, they suddenly become more prone to despair and even more self- doubt.

This could also lead to my earlier point, the fact that publicizing results leads to a social construct, where those who score generally high marks are at the top of the ladder and those who are not so bright are below. There are very many reasons why this is not advisable in a university. First of all, as is instilled in every undergraduate student, the purpose of attending a university should not be to only get a degree. Universities also expose us to political, social, and mental issues going on in our society. The publicizing of results shifts the focus mainly to the academic part, where some students, little though they like it, will find themselves trying to read so as not to get embarrassing grades, not even because they delight in learning, but because they would hate for their very awful results to be published.

On the issue of being a self-esteem downer, this point requires very little explanation. Students who score lower are less prone to give voices to their opinions, for fear that their poor results would be held against them. My opponent would surely argue that this could spur the student to perform better, but I ask you, aren't there more intellectual means, particularly in a university, of doing this?

I hope my points are well received and understood.

Thank you my lord.

Publicising of students’ grades: a necessity

“A secret’s worth depends on the people from which it must be kept.” ----- Carlos Ruiz Zafon

My lord, I want us to understand that this is vet school, and not an elementary school where only kids who are yet emotionally weak attend. Therefore, as this is a population of adults, I do not see anything humiliating about publicizing students results. Rather, many students shout out their results in classes across vet school, you will hear: “they don get me oh na 2/10 I spank for that test,” “guy, na binary numbers boku pass for that result.” Sire, this shows that results publicization do not hold with it any iota of abasement among the mature individuals in vet schools.

In fact, there is nothing secretive about veterinarians, especially in practice. The result of the surgery you perform, the outcome of the farm you visited or consulted, the result of your research work will not be sent to the private e-mail of your parents, rather it will be shown for the whole world to see. Therefore my lord, I see publicizing students’ results as a germane method of training veterinary students towards exactly what they are going to encounter in the outside world.

Veterinarians, like many other professionals, are not individualistic. Clinicians share their clinical cases with colleagues to know their opinions about the case, researchers share their research results with teachers, professionals, colleagues. Calling each student and whispering his results in his ears or sending results to the e-mails of their parents will only make the student idiosyncratic. It will only make the strengths and weaknesses of students to be confined to them. Moreover, vet students are encouraged by lecturers and alumni to share opinions on courses, to form group discussions, to study together because they know no one is a jack of all trades in vet school. Privatized results can only break the communal chain because no one knows in what area others are good or where others are weak then the strong gets stronger and the weak gets weaker! In fact rather than causing humiliation, results publicization will only cause motivation because students will become more attuned to their strength and weaknesses and low mark will set them on their feet making them do better.

My lord, it has been so finely designed in veterinary medicine that the results of students can make no sense to a random observer. Results are only revealed with the matriculation numbers and just few people who have known the matriculation numbers can only decipher this. So, if the issue is in publicizing students’ results, I can boldly say that no one is publicizing anyone’s result in vet school; the results are only there for people who can understand it.

Finally, I do not see it ludicrous for results of veterinary students to be openly pasted on notice boards because it does not present any element of humiliation and it equips the students for what the real world looks like. Also, it is a source of incentive to students as it serves as motivation for the top-scorers to never relent and for the weak to improve.

Thank you my lord.