Got an F or Fail from major courses, What can I do?

S. W. Eden

Cite this journal as: Eden, S. W. (2018). Got an F or Fail from major courses, What can I do? Retrieved from http://sw-eden.net

I am a university lecturer. I know that I should be very serious and all the students should be serious about their education, too. When I was an undergraduate student, about 10 years ago, some friends got an F and I have got a couple of F, too. Although I had never had an absent and I submitted all the class assignment in those two classes, I still got F because I fail in the final exam.

Today, I have been a university lecturer for 6 years, in Thailand. Now is the time that all universities have to think about their future, regarding the decreased number of new students. I think the university would need to consider about the “give an F” policy. They may not like the teachers to give the F to the students, because that reduces students’ satisfaction. Students may quit the university if they found they get many Fs.

The topic that I would like to discuss here is that, should I give an F to a very bad student? Bad students are those who often have absent. In the whole semester, they came to class only 2-3 times. Some did not come to take an exam, but they asked their parents to write the letter to ask me to allow their sons to take the exam after the examination date.

Figure 1: Teacher and funny student cartoon drawing

Almost all of these bad students do not submit any assignment, and they often said that they had other work to do to earn the money to help their family. I do not know if it is real or not, but I think, if it is real, they should drop and register for the class again when they have more free time.

Some professors in my university give these bad students the F, but some do not. Let’s talk about those who do not give the F for very bad students. We should be curious about what they actually think.

I have talk to one of them. He told me that if the students are very bad, he should allow them to keep being in the school until they graduate. This is because if no one gives an opportunity for these bad students, they would leave the school and do some illegal job in the future. On the other hand, if they are bad students who graduate, they will automatically find the job that most people look for. This way will help the society as a whole.

However, I still think that this thought is not entirely right. It might be right, but it does not fair for all other students who try very hard to graduate.

Last semester, I allowed a very bad student to pass my class with the grade D-. In fact, he should get an F, because he came to class only 2 times. Then, he took the exam. The total score he got was 30 from 100. I feel really bad about what I have done. I should not let him pass.

You guys… Do you want to say something about this issue. If I engage in this kind of situation again, what should I do?