The highest score for most of the exams in Russia is 5. If a student does not answer any question and returns back his exam paper blank, with no question answered, he gets 2 out of 5. In my first days at the University of Moscow, I did not know about this system and I was surprised and asked Dr. Theodor Medraev:
"Is this fair that a student did not answer any question and you give him 2 out of 5? Why not give him a zero ? Isn't that the right way ?"
He answered:
- How can we give a Human Being a zero ?
- How can we give him a zero to someone who was getting up at 7 am to attend all the lectures ?
- How can we give him a zero since he got up in this cold weather, and used public transport and reached to do the exam in time, and tried to solve the questions ?
- How can we give him a zero for the nights he used to study and spent his money on pens and notebooks and bought a computer for studying ?
- How can we give him a zero when he left all other life styles and pursued his studies ?
"Here my son, we do not give a zero to a student just because he did not know the answer. We at least try to respect the fact that this is a Human Being, and he is having a brain, and he tried. Because this result which we give, is not just for the questions in the exam paper, it is also about showing appreciation and respect to the fact that this is a Human Being and deserves to have a score."
Truly I cried and did not know how to respond. There I knew my value as a Human Being. Zeros can actually decrease motivation on students, and can quickly destroy them and make them stop caring about their studies altogether. Once a zero score has been put in the grade book, they need no longer care about that subject and they may assume that, there’s nothing they can do about it. Today I tell my story as a message to our teachers, so as to change this shabby system of education which we have in our country.
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