We had been captive of an educational system where students are trained to pass exams as a measure of success. It is not surprising that students fix their focus on the hows of passing the multifarious examinations they are to face in the course of their studies. Here is where many students develop the wrong notion that passing is the be all and end all of their schooling. There is no other purpose for schooling than to pass the tests in order to succeed. This passing mentality had been ingrained in the minds of our students and many of them do not care about the essence of learning anymore. What becomes the primordial concern for the student is passing by all means and at all costs, setting aside or making learning merely incidental.
While passing examinations is one good measure of one’s learning, it is not a foolproof indicator that the passer is indeed a learned person. As passing is attained in many ways under our system, there is no guaranty that the passer is truly equipped with the knowledge he ought to possess. There are students who struggle just to get the correct answers of examinations without giving value to the learning process. Many students resort to pointers and tips and even to the extent of cheating just to get a passing grade. There are those who rely on coached answers from classmates who are brighter and knowledgeable. This crop of students finds the many ways to pass without learning.
It is now an acute syndrome to cure the system that had inculcated the passing mentality at the expense of true learning. We had been used to such system and making radical changes will surely be on a collision course with many fixated concepts that are too rigid for change. But our educators and authorities must realize that the system is getting overrun by the fast changing demands for functional education. The need to develop new methods where knowledge and competence could be measured better than by mere passing grades that are obtained without validation is very much in order.
One clear indicator that defines the infirmity of the present system is how many of our college graduates are still failures for being incompetent on the job despite passing the many tests all throughout their schooling from pre-elementary to college. It is really a cause for concern that graduates of our educational system fall incompetent on the job. While the situation may be connected to the convenient excuse of the mismatches in education and job needs, it still needs serious attention and consideration for reforms in our educational system.
There must be a way of measuring knowledge on one hand and competence on the other hand in order to ensure that the educated person is ready to become a functional and competent worker. Requiring students to pass is not entirely wrong. It affords a good measure of ones knowledge if administered properly. But the same must be coupled with measures of competence which is more necessary on the job than mere passing grades.
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