Probe begins on lecturer forced to quit over 'sympathy marks'

The Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) has begun a probe into a former public university lecturer's allegations that she was forced to resign for refusing to give "sympathy marks" to under-performing students.

The lecturer, who spoke anonymously on April 15, told the paper that she had resigned from Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (Usim) as she was unable to tolerate the pressure to give out "sympathy marks" to students who had failed an examination set and marked by her.

In that examination, only four out of a class of 157 passed, prompting the university to send her a letter through the faculty dean calling for an explanation for the high failure rate. She was then criticised heavily by her superiors who allegedly pressured her into adding marks based on the attendance of students.

"Nor" refused as she felt it was the responsibility of the students to turn up for classes. "How am I to give them more marks if they are undeserving. I have given all the marks I can even though the students do not deserve them," said "Nor", who had been teaching in Usim's law faculty since 2007.

However, Nor's claims were rejected by Usim vice-chancellor Datuk Dr Abdul Shukor Husin who said the university had a clear procedure for marking test papers and that Usim had been ISO 9001:2000 accredited since 2004.

"We obtained our ISO 9001:2000 accreditation on Nov 11, 2004, and we were re-accredited on Jan 8 last year by the Standards and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia (Sirim). This proves that we have clear and transparent procedures in place," said Abdul Shukor in a press conference on Sunday.

He also said examination results were first scrutinised in a meeting of the faculty's undergraduate exams committee before being validated by the University Senate."We also have an external panel that oversees the academic and examination system," he said. Certification + Accreditation are both good things to show BUt what about the surveillance,enforcement + follow through ? These are good practice.