Education: Green pen regulations and calculating grades for supplementary students
The Ministry of Education has unveiled a set of strict protocols and regulations for "control and oversight" committees within schools, aimed at enhancing the efficiency of monitoring and grading processes and ensuring the highest standards of fairness and transparency in assessing students' academic achievement. This step comes as part of the Ministry's ongoing efforts to develop the educational assessment system and minimize the margins of human error.
Development context and the importance of accurate assessment
These instructions are of paramount importance in the current educational context, as the accuracy of results is the cornerstone upon which a student's academic and professional future is built. Through these regulations, the Ministry aims to solidify the principle of "students' best interests first," thereby strengthening trust between educational institutions and the community. These procedures are part of the governance of educational processes, ensuring that every student receives their full rights without excess or deficiency, which positively impacts the psychological well-being of both students and their parents.
The dominance of the "green pen" and the mechanisms of amendment
The new regulations granted the "green pen" sovereign and exclusive authority in the final review process following the initial correction. The ministry emphasized that only authorized reviewers are permitted to use this color, ensuring that official amendments are clearly distinguishable from the initial correction. If a grade needs to be changed, the ministry mandated that reviewers follow a specific procedure: lightly crossing out the old grade while remaining legible, writing the new grade in both numerals and words, and signing it clearly. The use of white eraser is strictly prohibited to guarantee the legal validity of the document and prevent any tampering.
Standards for dealing with multiple and crossed-out answers
The ministry addressed the recurring issues surrounding multiple answers, directing that the "arithmetic mean" of all answers be calculated for essay questions, while selecting more than one alternative for multiple-choice questions is considered an incorrect answer deserving zero marks. In a compassionate gesture recognizing the psychological state of students taking supplementary exams (those sitting for the second round or final attempts), the regulations allow for awarding half the mark for a correct answer that has been crossed out, provided it is legible. This acknowledges the pressure that might lead a student to hesitate and cross out an answer despite its correctness.
Control and Quality Assurance
To ensure the application of these standards, the procedural guide emphasized the necessity of meticulous matching between electronic recordings and answer sheets, along with mandatory random review of sample papers. The instructions also established a golden rule that favors the student in cases of recording errors: the "incorrect" grade is immediately recorded and approved if it is the higher grade and in the student's favor, while it is immediately corrected if it is unfair, thus underscoring the Ministry's commitment to absolute fairness.
