When I began my academic career, the first thing I told myself as a young Lecturer straight after NYSC was to ensure that no student fails any of my courses. I wanted to be the first Lecturer to achieve such a feat. I believed that the reason students fail is because the Lecturers are probably not lenient enough. Perhaps they are too harsh with their marking schemes.
So I thought. As soon as I obtained a Master’s degree and earned the right to teach a course, the reality dawned on me very quickly. Despite making my classes fun and introducing relatable stories to buttress key points, I found that some students still struggled to catch up.
Despite re-explaining concepts that were abstract using different examples to achieve clarity, I found that there were still students who looked lost. Despite privately explaining to a few of them who ended up coming to my office for more understanding, I still recorded 5 failures out of 72, in the test I conducted. I could not eliminate the failures.
Yes, some of you might say that 5 out of 72 is actually a good overall performance but I was gutted because I had hoped to not record any failure at all. I soon realised that I was wrong with my initial belief that overall students performance rest solely in the hands of the lecturers. My expectations were unrealistic because I was a novice on the job. I then concluded that to achieve an impressive learning outcome at university level, there must be responsibilities shared between a supportive Lecturer and a studious student.
A Lecturer should not take all the blame especially when a student has refused to give the basic minimum to his or her academics. Such a student will most likely fail irrespective of how supportive the Lecturer is.
I also observed that students generally do not like taking responsibility for their failures. The moment a student fails a course, the blame is hung around the neck of the Lecturer. You will hardly find a student accept his or her failure due to bad preparation. When they pass, you would hear them say, “I got 75A”. But when they fail, you would hear them say, “the Lecturer gave me, 24F.”
Imagine a student who clearly struggled to write one word in his exam booklet all through the 2 hour duration, still claiming that a Lecturer failed him or her. Quite ridiculous!
Let me share a story.
In the early stages of my career as a Lecturer, I was very empathetic to student failures. I have always been approachable so whenever any student has issues, my door is often recommended to be knocked upon for help. And they often leave feeling much better because I do my best within my capacity to help.
On this day, a young lady came to my office and was crying profusely that she failed BIO 101 (at the time, it was a 4 unit course, done manually and not computer-based as we have it today). Her tears moved me so I told her to come back the following day that I would look into it.
After she left, I went to the script store (where all exam booklets of several years are neatly kept and arranged) and began to look for her Department’s script envelope. I found it and extracted her booklet from it, then headed straight to my office to look at it carefully.
I was totally disappointed!
This young lady wrote nothing in her booklet. She only copied out the questions into the booklet and left the entire thing blank. Apparently, the 20F she scored was mainly from her practicals and test. She literally scored zero in the exam which had a total score of 60 marks.
…And there she was, crying like a baby as if she did not know why she scored 20F.
What sort of magic was she expecting after submitting an empty exam booklet? Was she thinking Angel Michael will enter the script store and fill up her booklet with answers? What was the crocodile tears for, knowing fully well that she prepared poorly and couldn’t write anything?
When she returned the next day, I showed her the exam booklet and said to her, “So, that’s your booklet. I realised you wrote nothing at all”. Then she began to stare at the booklet as if she forgot her matric number and was seeing the booklet for the first time. “Or is this not your exam booklet?”, I asked. “It is, sir”, she responded in a low tone, perhaps feeling embarrassed. So, I gave her an advice to stop thinking a 20F will magically turn to a pass mark because we do not alter marks in FUTA. I told her to go and prepare better next session and she left.
This incidence describes many students today. They generally dislike taking responsibility for their failures. In fact, many of them will write letters questioning the score they were given and after investigation is conducted, we will discover that the scores they were complaining about are their actual scores.
How can you hate failing but also hate preparing well? Do you not know that the most reliable way to not fail is to prepare well in advance?
I am aware of rare cases where 90% of a class failed a course. That can easily be attributed to the Lecturer, perhaps the way he/she set the questions or the marking scheme. However, this is usually not the case most of the time. The common occurrence is a normal curve where few students have As, majority have the middle grades and a few have Fs.
Those who then have Fs begin to question their Fs despite knowing that they were counting the ceiling boards all through the duration of the exam without knowing what to write in their booklets.
I remember scoring 4 out of 40 in a physics test in 100 Level at FUTA. I did not blame any Lecturer. I knew physics was my “kreptonite” so I found a friend to guide me. He did a good job and showed me shortcuts on how to solve the questions. I ended up having 55C in the course and did not fail, because I took action and accepted my previous failure.
Students must learn to be responsible for their actions. They must understand that there are no shortcuts. They have to put in the shift to get the results they want. They need to stop getting used to being spoon-fed.
I will also blame this behaviour on many private secondary schools in Nigeria where students do not fail. They just pass every one; no consequences for poor performance, you just move to the next class. Imagine ending up in a university where your poor performance will be punished; such a student will suddenly feel unjustly treated because they came from an unjust environment.
This issue bothers me a lot because if students do not learn that in life it is normal to fail due to bad preparation, they will struggle adjusting to life-after-school when their business or other personal plans fail. Their adversity quotient will be too low to withstand the pressure of adult life.
I hope you enjoyed Episode 10?
Thank you for staying with me all through, from January till November, to see me wrap up the 10-episode series. It has been awesome sharing my experience with you guys. I hope the content serves it’s purpose in the end.
Many thanks once again.
