Should final exams be the measure of excellence?

Dean Karemera There’s no substitute for excellence Where as we always want fair chances in life, some things can never be substituted and among those things, is excellence. I understand that there could be problems and a student fails his final exams and usually the most logical thing to do is to be fair and consider past results but for how long will that be done? This is what ‘kills’ most people, being lenient and soft. Those two factors can never get someone anywhere in this world. The world we live in is so harsh and cruel that it only takes the strong to survive and the same is required in school. What excuse does a student have for failing his final exams? From my experience, most students fail because they relax; they think they are bright and tend to relax forgetting that the fight continues. If the yardstick of excelling even at the finish line is not used, what else can we use to measure excellence? We can’t always rely on the past to determine results in the present. This brings me to the point where people tend to always use the word “at least” till it becomes part of their daily life. “We should forgive him and he continues, at least his records show that he is a bright student.” Imagine such a statement? Why “at least,” why not yes, he deserves it and his final results show that he is an excellent student. The reality is that in life, we can’t always give reckless chances. Imagine a good doctor who all of sudden kills a patient accidently! Would anyone want that doctor in the medical profession or even touching anyone? I guess not. Excellence is the ability to diligently and effectively execute any task given without excuses and being soft on people. If a student has been bright and he fails the final exam, he/she should re-sit the exam to prove that actually the failure was an accident instead of letting them off the hook. That builds a mentality of perfectionism rather than let him know that even mediocre work is enough to get him off the hook. Until we understand the importance of excellence, we are bound to have a problem of doing mediocre work which in the long run will affect our institutions. It is, therefore important that we put much emphasis on excellence regardless of the level because ultimately it will offer excellent individuals. karemeradean@gmail.com ************************************************************* Doreen Umutesi Continuous assessment tests should be given priority Anything could go wrong before sitting for a final exam yet it is what matters most at the end of the day. The outcome determines whether your education career will move to the next stage or not. We all at some point, when going to sit for the final paper, are under pressure and chances of misinterpreting a question are so high that you may end up failing, yet you have been passing year in year out. It’s because of such incidents that I feel it’s not fair for a student’s excellence to be measured by just one final exam like Primary Leaving Exams (PLE) Ordinary Level or Advanced level exams. As Rwanda reviews the school curriculum from primary to secondary, I think the element of measuring a student’s capabilities or excellence using only the final exams should be revised. Putting into consideration the continuous assessment tests and the assignments just like it is done at University is something that should be done for primary and secondary education. The continuous assessment tests should be given priority. I don’t think its fair at all for a student’s hard work for the six years in primary to be determined by just a 2hours exam. There are things that could affect performance in that one paper yet the student has been excellent. Now that primary and secondary students are sitting the final exams, there could be a student for instance that lost a relative and psychologically it’s going to affect his or her performance in the final exams yet for the last six or three years he or she has been performing so well. It’s not fair at all that the result of the final exam should be the only thing that entirely measures this student’s excellence. I think that final exams should not be used to measure a student’s ability to excel because students usually work under pressure rather than their knowledge and skills. There are also issues of anxiety that may cause the students to try to complete the questions quickly, leading them to make mistakes due to time constraints thus leading to failure. Anxiety has a negative effect on performance. According to a publication by John Merrow titled; ‘Testing, Assessment and excellence’ a more rational approach is broad-based assessment, which involves multiple measures of what a student has learned. Assessment relies on teacher-made tests, teacher evaluations, student demonstrations, etc over an extended period of time, instead of one score on a single, largely machine-scored test (even if it includes a writing test). Unfortunately, the supporters of high-stakes testing have more faith in machines than they do in teachers. doreen.umutesi@newtimes.co.rw

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Should final exams be the measure of excellence?