Scores and stamps

1. For a relatively short period, society has continuously witnessed discussions about changes in the education sector.

In the admissions process, perhaps the most controversial issue was the proposal to use literature as a subject for admission to medical school. The economics school was using literature for admission to biology...

Currently, there is much public discussion about the move to replace grading with teacher feedback in primary schools. This aims to avoid formalism and allow teachers to assess students' abilities in a more flexible, humane, and accurate way. But…

The Ministry has its policies, and teachers are not lacking in "school initiatives," as one newspaper exclaimed, "The Ministry has its decisions, teachers have their countermeasures." Instead of giving specific feedback to each student, many teachers have resorted to having stamps made to affix to students' test papers. This is an easy way for teachers to cope with the sudden increase in workload.

2. Perhaps seals are now easily and sharply engraved. But no matter what, a seal is still just a seal; it has no soul.Looking at the stamps on their children's notebooks, how many parents wonder if they are more specific and heartfelt than the grades of the past? Those exclamation points like: "Teacher praised you, you need to try harder," "You've improved, keep up the good work," "You did great"... it turns out they weren't the heartfelt, affectionate handwriting on the notebooks, but rather pre-stamped seals.

Many of us cannot forget the image from *Hearts of a Child* that we learned in school: Old Mrs. Crome, the oldest teacher in the school when she entered the classroom, said to her young students: "You should respect my gray hair a little! I am not only a teacher, I am also a mother!"

You can't grow plants in places lacking sunlight, nor can you raise children with little enthusiasm. Under pressure, while not every teacher needs to be a mother, it's also impossible for each one to be like a stamp-stamping clerk, someone society associates with the image of a "cold, emotionless face" full of bureaucracy.

Students need discipline and compassion, and that compassion must be genuine, not cold, impersonal stamps. Only then can the humane and scientific approach of the education sector partially meet society's expectations, like the banner of "innovation and reform" that the sector pursues, rather than merely patchwork solutions. And then, policies will be needed to "reform" those patchwork solutions.

According to TT&VH