Should students’ grades be posted on notice boards?

Given that  notice boards in all schools serve as the platform for disseminating any information to students by the authorities, posting students’ grades on these notice boards may either  be a source of humiliation for some students, while at the same time encourage other students to “up their game” in academics.

The argument may go beyond just encouraging weak students, in that, students who may not be performing well in a particular subject will be encouraged to prove to their friends that they can also achieve a high grade in that subject.

At the same time, students who may be doing well in some subjects in class will be encouraged to maintain their academic performance, since they’ve been known to obtain high grades in that subject.

The argument may be an issue of psychological effect. It may be one of emotions and how a person may feel upon finding out, second-hand, that his or her term’s grades are on a public notice board.

Arguing in favor of posting grades on notice boards, one may claim if you are not smart enough to pass a test in class and every other student is, why should praise be withheld from those doing well? Why stop the congratulatory gesture for the inability of another student who does not take his or her education seriously.

Another point worthy of mention  is that  it creates positive competition among the students. This enables the students strive harder next time around to obtain a better grade than that being displayed on the notice board, given the current performance of that student. It is human nature to compete and excel.

Also, students need to take responsibility for their academics, themselves. Posting grades can show them that putting in a bit more effort may just get them the results they seek.

Arguing against the motion, the privacy rules that guard the conduct of examinations should guard it through to its final destination – the results. Why the double standards? The student must have that absolute right to first access the results and then decide who sees it next.

In many cases, the full name of the student together with the grade is displayed, yet during the examination, it is just the index number of the student which is required. That sounds contradictory, if not puzzling. Is the school exposing it’s students to the same danger of victimisation and undue favoritism that it should protect it’s students from?

Following, examination is never a true test of knowledge. Should a student not pass an exam doesn’t mean he or she is a dullard. Several factors go into the examination stage and sometimes these might affect, negatively, the results of students. To quote Bill Gates, “I failed some of my papers but my friend passed all. Today he is an engineer in Microsoft and I’m the owner of Microsoft.”

Moreover, finding out your results second-hand, especially when you have not performed so well, could be very disturbing and highly embarrassing. Even though it could motivate you to do better next time, to many students, it does hurt more than it motivates them — it humiliates them.

Sometimes also, a wrong grade is posted for a student due to human mistakes, or due to computing error. This becomes more damaging and worrying when little is done to correct the damage done to the image of the student.

Notwithstanding the direction, angle and perspectives one may decide to view it from, the tradition of displaying results publicly on notice boards has lost its relevance in the 21st century, especially during this era of technological education.

In addition, people could take photos of the grades and post them across social media and tag people in them – this is the marks that somebody received and their thoughts on them.

Moreover, no measures have been put in place by the counselling units of schools to psychologically prepare the student with a bad grade for the news before posting his or her grade on the notice boards, as this seems to be the only communication channel between the school and the student with respect to grades.

In sum, certain senior high schools, with the aim of improving the performance of students as one of their main goals, have taken measures to correct the challenges that confront the idea of posting students’ grades on notice boards so that the learning environment will accommodate mistakes  and failures yet assuring high performance by the students at the WASSCE.