Teacher III-BNHS
Emotions may run high during deliberations of honor students. A case in point is the contested honors ranking in Grade 10 at Bataan National High School last School Year 2015-2016. The parents of a national champion student complained about the grades of their son being not proportional to their child’s achievement.
Is the parents’ complaint legitimate?
The general policy of the school on students who go out on competition is grade retention. This, in fact, was reaffirmed by the school head during the deliberation: that the highest grade a student contestant can get is a retained grade. A retained grade is defined as the rating of the student as copied from his preceding grade in due consideration of his absence from regular classes brought about by extracurricular activities.
The parents were questioning the fairness and validity of grade retention. The sticking point is especially true in the subject where the son has won first places from the division all the way to the national level. The student has never been irresponsible as attested by the teacher-coach. He has always tried to catch up on missed lessons. If that is so, why should his performance depend on grade retention instead of computation? Why is there a need for grade retention if the student-contestant catches up with the lesson and may have performed even better? Should the contestant be limited to the grade retention rule when he can outperform himself from the previous grading? Furthermore, if he wins big, are the winnings not possible for him to earn some points in academic subject where the contest is related anyway?
These are valid questions that breed serious scholastic ramifications.
In order for us to answer the questions, let us dig into some relevant legal bases : Education Act of 1982 Rule III, Section 3 (e) states that teachers shall:
“refrain from making deductions in the scholastic rating of pupils or students, for any act that is clearly not a manifestation of poor scholarship.”
There were no actual deductions on grades that happened on the part of the grieving student. His performance was copied from his last. The only question here is if the retained grade was JUSTIFIED which may, wittingly or unwittingly, cause the student to receive the grades more or less than what he deserved. If the retained grade is not justified, then it is also a form of grade deduction only indirectly. First, there are no clear bases for the retained grade other than the word retained. Second, the student rarely missed the classes except when he was out during the contest which may subsequently cause him to outperform himself leading to higher grades or if not, at least, the grade will vary or if it remains the same, it must be based on record showing that the teacher is doing his job and not just copy grades with neither rhyme nor reason.
Teacher practicing the grade retention rule may not only be liable under Education Act of 1982 Rule III but may also be culpable of negligence of duty leading to unfair and unjust rating of the students.
On the issue of whether the grade for specific grading should increase or decrease is irrelevant on the matter, what is important is to give the student his due regardless of results to avoid insinuations and confusions on the part of the student and parents and to avoid headache on the part of teachers. If the rating of the contestant becomes higher after computation of performances, then it will show that grade retention rule would have done him injustice, had it been applied to him. Well, it sure did in our specific case. However, if the contestant rating decreases upon computation after a grading period, then grade retention rule, had it been applied to him, would have done his classmates injustice, not to mention the wrong value that student-contestant will get if he earns grades without doing anything.
Consequently, on all fronts, grade retention-rule looks indefensible because it is not only illegal which may lead to teacher conviction for not doing his job, but it is also tragically unfair to both the student who goes out to compete and the classmates who live by the rules in getting grades.
There is always a discussion of whether or not it is fair to give students who represent schools during academic and sports competition retained grade. Some groups, even administrators, say yes because according to them, class performance may plummet because such students are not one hundred percent inside the classroom. Others say not, because there is no basis of learning in grade retention. Let’s look at some answers from the authority, Department of Education itself. DepEd Regional Memorandum No. 13, s of 2000 entitled “Rating of School Athletes states that
“Special assistance should be given to pupils/students who are representing their schools during sports competitions by giving them advanced lessons, special tests, self-learning modules and the like to help them catch up with the lessons.”
Nowhere in the memo is the idea of grade retention.
Nor there is any memo or order of grade retention in all subjects for students who go out of in the name of school in whatever kind of competition.
And rightly so, because grade retention is a double-edged sword: it violates the right of the student to be graded according to his ability and it violates the right of every classmate of the student to a just and fair rating.
If the athletes who train outside schools have provisions not to sideline the academics and work on them to earn their grades, then so do students who enter into competitions under any academic banner.
Yet the practice of grade retention is rampant and the abuse that goes with it.
Students and teachers both demand retained grades from all subjects when excused from even a one-day competition. And a lot of times it is not even the competition that they were excused from but for practice preparations which take weeks or even months effectively depriving students from attending normal classes regularly. And all for the simple reason that the grade is retained. That the school allowed such a transgression or abuse is unthinkable.
Going back to the case as first mentioned, the parents of the student running for honors obviously have valid reasons to complain. The grades of his son in all grading periods are the same, meaning retained. There were no clear explanations, no valid reasons. This student was not irresponsible and caught up with the lesson. As to due consideration, it is for teachers to give him extra time for him to make up what he missed in his absence during contest.
As to the case of this student giving school the honors by bagging awards in a contest from the division to the national level, it is only fair that the school should devise a plus-factor-point system on how to reward these achievers. Let’s say the contest is about science, the winning student should get an equivalent plus factor points in Science rating at different levels, provided however, that it is the highest award that will be given points and provided further, that these points should be added to his true academic performance in that specific subject.
PROPOSED PLUS FACTOR POINTS INCENTIVE FOR WINNING STUDENTS
GARNERING 1ST TO 3RD PLACE
|
Level |
Plus Factor Points |
|
School |
1 |
|
Division |
2 |
|
Regional |
3 |
|
National |
4 |
|
International |
5 |
Having satisfied all the above conditions in giving fair considerations on how to rate students who participate in competitions beyond the school, there is no reason for the aggrieved student, after all his efforts and accomplishments, to feel that he has been shortchanged and has been treated unfairly and, likewise, for parents to think that their child has been exploited by the very institution that is supposed to uphold, above all, transparency, fairness and justice.
By: Luz H. Buensuceso Teacher III-BNHS
