Job Discussion Forums

[moonpie]

Ok, I stand corrected. To fail in the Oman Colleges of Applied Technology a student has to achieve less than 26 out of a 100 in the final marks for the semester. Does anyone have a lower bar?

[johnslat]

Dear moonpie,

It could be worse:

"South Africa's university graduation rate of 15% is one of the lowest in the world."

http://www.hsrc.ac.za/Document-2717.phtml

But that was on 2008 - maybe it's improved since then (Of course, it could also have gotten even worse.)

Regards,
John

[Nolan Chance]

[veiledsentiments]

I'm not clear whether Mr/Ms Moon meant that only 26% of the CAT students passed...

or

Whether the passing grade was 26% (which suggests that they got 74% of the questions wrong)

VS

[Nolan Chance]

[veiledsentiments]

I see that I was correct... 26% is the passing grade... not the percentage of students who passed as Nolan and John interpreted it.

VS
(and no... I was sure that it wasn't clear... but I see that s/he clarified it)

[rainbowprof]

if it's 26% passing grade maybe the examinations are a fraction difficult. Maybe they need some bonus points like 5 points if your name is spelt correctly and extra points if the date makes sense... Extra points if they answer every question (regardless if they are right or wrong). Maybe a sentence gets full points even if it has up to three errors. If you don't pass students in a compulsory course not enough people will graduate. And you get stuck with the same students who keep failing. If I failed that many students it would be hard to keep my job. There might be questions as to my suitability.

[veiledsentiments]

You really need to have taught in the Gulf to see how this sort of thing works. It could be that the exam was too difficult... or didn't cover what they were taught... or it could have been at the level that it should have been and covered exactly what they were taught, but the grades reflect how little the students are working.

Or it could be that the management is unrealistic as to what ability the students can reach in one semester... or two. And when the reality of the test results slap them in the face, passing grade is quietly lowered rather than change the system.

I recall many years ago at HCT, there would be system-wide exams written to give to both the men's and women's colleges. The women would have a normal pass/fail number... and 60+% of the men would fail. So, a quickie summer course would be created... and miraculously, at the end of that month, the men would pass a "new" exam with a normal pass/fail rate.

The system is smoke and mirrors... and politics and family often matter more than what the students have actually learned... or not. Now if only one teacher's students tank, trouble may ensue for that teacher. But if all classes under-perform, as is the norm, it becomes a management fix.

VS

[rainbowprof]

Not so unusual. Works quite similarly at most of the universities where I have taught. Bell curving and normalizing scores is instituted at the majority of educational establishments- just a matter of degree, I expect.

[veiledsentiments]

Rarely saw anything resembling a normal bell curve. I'm not sure that language testing would commonly do a curve similar to an academic subject. ...and "normalizing" usually means... like this case... lowering the pass number.

VS

[rainbowprof]

my latest workplace told me up to 40% A and above, 40% B+ and B, 79% A and B max. I smiled.

[lizziebennet]

[tvik]

VS's summary of the system in the Gulf is correct. As for the lowest standard in the world I would say A'Sharkiyah University is one of the top ranking spots. The divide between the girls and the boys is so vast, I've never seen the like. One year in Muscat at one of the lower-end collages, was nothing compared to the hinterland of Oman, where the feral desert nomads have been herded into the modern world. Many of the boys simply stroll up and down the halls knocking on doors and yelling in Arabic into different classrooms. The fire alarm goes off regularly, and in the "advanced class" the majority of them score under 30%. Unfortunately, most of the teachers are not prepared for the reality shift and have no affinity for the culture. The directives from the university include: "Make sure to mark them absent if they don't come and any student over 20% no-show will be thrown out" To date not one student has been ejected for truancy and everyone, staff and student, knows it, which means there is no point whatsoever in taking attendance. Shall I go on??? Well, OK, the books that the students got, half of them were used. So, that means when you say do exercise #4 on page 203, lo and behold, it's already been done, with some other graffiti accompanying it. Most of the students are on scholarships given out in the wake of the Arab protests last year, and it's great that some of the poor families of Oman have a place to send their daughters and they really are fine students, but the university has also become a dumping ground for boys who have no hope in ever learning English. It's not much of a solution for them, but rather, just buying time and keeping them occupied with girl-watching while the testosterone comes down to managable levels. It's too bad they are so averse to work, they might be out making money somewhere if they only could lower themselves to doing some of the jobs every teenager in the first world does before they work their way up the ladder.

http://www.economist.com/node/147023

[rainbowprof]

tvik, thanks for the wakeup to the real world.

In the US, about 35% of High School students continue on to college. Only 46% of these will finish college.

Source(s):

http://chronicle.com/free/v52/i27/27b050�
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10053859/

In Korea, 95% go straight into college or university. There are over 200 universities. English is a core unit that every student studies and must pass to graduate. Almost every student graduates:-)

I can't believe it. Somehow sounds even lower standards in th ME yet universities overall regardless of location tend to want MA qualifications and above to be on the teaching staff.

[veiledsentiments]

The key is to suspend logic Mr Rainbow...

VS