The Covid pandemic brought about interesting challenges to the teaching community. Let me explain just one of the challenges - ‘how to evaluate the student?’
There was the uncertainty of when the pandemic would end, resulting in uncertainty in the mode (online or offline) and dates of continuous assessment and final examination. It was obvious that a significant percentage of students would cheat in an online examination. This brought in a dilemma.
Option 1: Should the faculty set a very hard question paper, and limit the duration of the exam, which would make it very difficult for everyone (for those who cheat and for those who are honest)?
Option 2: Or should the faculty make a moderately difficult question paper, which is attemptable by the honest student, but giving a possibility to cheat (and get more marks) for a dishonest student?
If I choose option 1– bad things (grades) happen to bad (cheating) students, but also bad things (grades) happen to good (honest) students. If I choose option 2–good things (grades) happen to good students, but also better things (grades) happen to bad (cheating) students. In my discretion as a faculty, I chose the latter. For I cannot decide to allow honest students to suffer, just so that I make cheating impossible! If the evaluation of a semester exam during a pandemic is complex, how much more complex would the judgment of the whole world be! Yet, let's rejoice for we have hope. The Judge of all the world is all-wise and sovereign, unlike a human who is limited in wisdom and power! Praise the Lord!
Let’s read two Bible passages today. The first Bible passage is of Abraham asking about God’s judgment towards two wicked cities and the possible collateral damage of the good people if God were to choose something like option 1. The second Bible passage is a parable told by Lord Jesus, on something which is like option 2.
Genesis 18: 20, 21, 23-26, 19: 15,16, 24 -Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.” Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” (There was only one man – Lot who wasn’t wicked in that city.) With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.”When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them.Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. [Link to the Bible passage]
Matt 13: 24-30 Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away.When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time, I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’” [Link to the Bible passage]
God never allows collateral damage! He saves the righteous before destroying the wicked. Yet, at times in this world, it may look like the bad people (like weeds) are growing along with and even more than the good people. They might take water and other nutrients from the ground and even push aside the good seed. Yet, there awaits for them a final judgment from the great Judge of the world. A final judgment where the good will definitely be rewarded and the wicked punished.
It so happened that the end semester examination is offline, making it difficult for the dishonest students to cheat, leaving unprepared those who didn’t attend classes responsibly. Well, what do you think? Will we be having an end world examination?
Link to the previous article: Why do good things happen to bad people? (part 1)
Link to the next article: Why do good things happen to bad people? (part 2)
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