Man please stop π. I'm gonna start sending these to people to showcase my frustration. It's my 3d year with my module. Still under 25 π. Busy with my fourth degree and counting. Goal is a job in academics... But is it worth it??
Just today I pulled out a bunch of assignments that needs grading. The first one didn't go so well but I was still positive. I ended up marking 5 just to realise not one of these students scored above 50. I went back to the assignment description, the videos I uploaded, my class notes I hand wrote and handed to them, the slides, the reading material for that unit, I even gave them an assignment template. It's all there, everything they need for a structured assignment. Did I still fail my students? I wonder a lot if I'm doing enough.
But then I remember 40% of the class not attending the unit during the blockweek. I check blackboard to see only 13 of my 33 students went over the readings and notes. I didn't fail as a lecturer, my students failed to learn and play their part. On top of that we have bad grammer (don't get me wrong I'm no pro, but I use Grammarly, google and my partner to check everything π). The basics of writing is nowhere to be found. Page numbers? Headings? References?! Even basics like useing a font that's easy to read in a size bigger than 8 π₯, it's not there. I wonder how? How do these students end up in fort of us?
What is the future of academics in SA if this is what we have? How do we guide them to becoming more?
Yeah I do not know. I have all of these frustrations as well. Even paragraphs! I had one student write basically 3500 words in two or three paragraphs. As a reader I was completely lost.
Luckily you only have 30. I have 64 essays of philosophy of about 3500 words each. And they are not making sense. If they actually did the work I gave them, the reading would have been okay but:
NO ONE (okay maybe 30%) DISCUSSED THE TOPICS I GAVE THEM.
I mean in what world do you completely ignore the topics of your assignment and write about whatever you want? How did we end up in a situation where these adults (they are 21 and older) cannot even do basic things like essay writing?
π€£ the topics being ignored kills me. I have students writing about land use when the topic is on regional differences. These two are miles apart π. I don't even know if it's funny or sad.
I do know that SA needs a shift in education, specifically focused on universities. We keep lowering acceptance requirements and pass rates. By keeping to this we are gonna end up with a generation waiving around degrees and not knowing anything. Accountability, work ethics, effort and constant improvement is so important when going out into the world. Just hoping somewhere students realise the degree means nothing if the boss ain't pleased with your work.
I am finding this out the hard way. The university is about making money. To not give too much away, but if a student fails the university does not get their money from the state. I am sure you are aware of the numbers. I think a PhD in 3 years is worth almost 400k, master's almost 120k, articles 120k, and undergrad students in 3 years about 20-30k if I remember correctly. So the waiving of degrees without much knowledge is a real thing haha. But I am sure you know about this. No one is hiding these numbers.