"Why you put me a six, meester?"

The Argentine Education system is as follows.
- Every student is given a grade by their teacher, once a trimester.
- Every student needs to average 7 by the end of the year to pass.
- If you fail, and get a 6, you return for exams in December.
- If you fail those, you return for extra exams in February.
- All of those exams are set and marked by teacher internally (eg you set the bar).

Around exam time, and grade time, I often have a disgruntled little fella (usually fella) approach me in a corridor, demanding, 'Why you put me a 6, meester?'

A lot can be read into this sentence. Firstly, it means 'Why did you give me a 6 in my trimester grades' and inplies, 'and as a consequence I will now be faced with resit exams'. But what irritates me more about this accusation is the lack of responsibility of the student. Not, why did I get a 6 (with the inference, how can I improve): not how did I fail but how did you fail me.

The 7 pass/6 fail is in many ways a reductionist system, the difference between 6 and 7 being exponentially greater than between 7 and 8, leading to culture where one might be inclined only to aim to pass. Conversely, there is little provision for students with learning disabilities other than to do it again (either the work, the exam or the year: within which lies the wonderful educational paradox of 'catching up by going slower').

Like many students, my first year at University 'didn't count' towards my overall degree (how can that make sense?) and you needed to 'achieve' 40% to pass in second year. Now, I'm the first to admit that I had the intellectual maturity of a kinder student (or even Kinder Egg) throughout 1996, but even taking that into account, you couldn't help but notice that the prevailing attitude was that anything over 40% was good time wasted. But a year of aiming for the minimum can be habit forming, and my point is not to look for an apology for 'achieving' a 2:2 from Loughborough (an apology in itself) but simply to point to the the fact that we average people tend to respond towards incentives.

Now, that lack of incentive to achieve beyond the average is the system here. Even the cliche's hold the importance of 'reaching for the sky' as being tantamount to success. Don't get me wrong, such low expectations can lead to a very laid back existence, for students and teachers. Besides, you set and mark all the papers, so any failing is in reality your choice (there is no baseline assessment). So the kids are right when they ask why did you put them a six. Which takes us back to the point about ownership.

One of my favourite education quotations is that: Education is not the filling of a bucket, it is the lighting of the flame.

So, to extend this metaphor, make it culturally appropriate, and stretch it beyond its maximum elasticity, and to describe this system which teaches its students the following values, in Chinese whispers, is as follows:

"Education in this system is the putting of a bucket on your head, and setting your self on fire."

"If you are educated you can set a bucket on flame."

"If you struggling in this education system, you might struggle to fill a bucket."

And finally:
"Education is not the putting of a six, it is the putting of a 7."