Course of Relative Grading System - Essay Example

Ethical Argument Curse of Relative Grading System Ethics is a major branch of philosophy, encompassing right conduct and good life. Based on a reallife situation, John, a college going boy was doing his Graduation in Science and Technology field. The performance of the students in his college was evaluated on the basis of Relative grading System. Commonly there are two systems to evaluate the performance: Absolute Grading system: In this system all of the grades are given on the basis of the marks obtained as a percentage of maximum marks and is given as follows:- Percentage Score = Total Marks Obtained/ Total Max. Marks * 100 Relative Grading System: Relative grading system is mostly adopted in the semester system, there are few reason's why, in relative grading system your grading will be dependent on the topper of the class. Now the Relative Grading System was adopted by that college for the betterment of the students because if the Faculty has prepared an extremely tough paper then also student can have respectful marks. Relative Percentage = Total Marks Obtained/ Total Marks obtained by the topper * 100 John has taken Networking and Artificial Intelligence as his Major specialization subject. Since the subject was tough, only 15 students (including John) took it as there Major Specialization Subject. There was enough competition among these students and there performance was up to par. There were four permanent Faculties and three Visiting Faculties, who were highly qualified; well experienced in there field and dedicated & hard working. It was the Final Examination of the first semester and John has worked really hard to get good marks in the exam. One night when he was playing with codes of networking, a few batch mates came and asked "to co-operate". He was in the dilemma whether to co-operate with his friends or not. That night, his batch mates made a plan which according to him was "highly unethical". The plan was to misuse The Relative Grading System by mutual understanding and co-operation. The batch mates tried to exploit the weakness of the system from the terms of the marks obtained by the topper. Clearly if the topper obtains only 30% of the absolute marks in an examination, which is to be checked using the relative grading system, then even a student who has just managed to obtain 24% absolute marks, will effectively, secure a total of 80% relative marks (Grade A) and will pass with flying colors, who in real circumstances should not be allowed to attend the second semester. They were trying to convince him into executing the same plan and finally attempt only three questions out of the bunch of ten., as everyone will do this and will get 'A' grade. John did not get convince because it was not an ethical act and there came 'Ethical Arguments'. He told his mates to give a real fight in the examination and not this 'fake co-operation' because somewhere in the long run they have to pay for this unethical act. He said that every game has certain rules which can be manipulated to act in one's favor but one who is a hard worker will never try to manipulate and will come out as a winner with his hard work and efficiency, even after following these rules. He argued the basic purpose of introducing a relative grading system is to dilute the significance of the toughness of the paper and the marks to be primarily a function of the individual's strength in a competitive environment His batch mates stood firm in their decision and did not give heed to his ideas. It was the Final Examination and question papers were distributed. John was forced to attempt only three questions out of those ten just for the sake of friendship and cooperation. He was feeling very bad. He recited his favorite lines during the examination: "When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion." -Abraham Lincoln But he was helpless and bounded; he was not feeling good. Result day, although everyone passed with flying colors but one man lost his job. The teacher, who was blamed that he was not efficient enough and that not even a single individual could obtain more than 30% of the absolute marks, is a result of his poor teaching. John and his batch mates could never forget this, as one of their misdeeds has forced a hard working and an efficient teacher to lose his job, irrespective of the fact that he was really good at teaching. They decided then, not to tweak the rules of the game and follow the right approach as, not following the ethics, can lead to unexpected and unwanted results. There could have been another consequence to this marked as follows:- Consequence 2: - In case the dean of the institute cam to know about their plan, he could have expelled all the students from their current semester and could have forced them into attending the semester again. This would have not forced smart students into spending 6 more months into the college, but, would have also delayed their career start by a precious time of at least as high as six more months. Had they appeared into campus, they could have been forced to prove their delay in completion by these six months and would have struggled to get a job in any of the good organization due to their unethical practice. Consequence 3: - Lets say neither do they get caught and nor is the teacher punished then the very significance of them giving the examination has come a cropper because in every other examination they decide not to study and follow the same malpractice. At the end of the day, when they clear their colleges and finally start their hunt for a job, they would have turned a failure because at any point in time what can fetch you a job is your knowledge and not your degree. Even if by a sheer stroke of luck, had they got into some organization, they would have been sacked soon because a candidate who lacks knowledge is no more than a burden to the society. This move of a few individuals would have spoiled the career for the entire batch. Work Cited:- "Ethics." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 21 Dec 2008, 15:22 UTC. 27 Dec 2008 . Read More