Moral dilemmas - When should a teacher bend the rules?

Should a teacher ever break a school’s rules? If so, when?  A few years ago, I faced a situation where if I didn’t break the regulations, I would have been haunted by the consequences.  I worked at a high school for boys in the Middle East as an English teacher.  One of my students had been raped by one of his peers.  After serving a six-month sentence in prison, the rapist was bizarrely returned to the victim’s school. 

The victim and his class were about to sit their final exams – the state’s regulations required that students had to pass English and Maths to leave school and get a job in a government department – the usual path for the country’s citizens.  If the victim didn’t pass, then he would have to resit the year and spend another year in fear of the rapist. 

He was awful at English and so his nightmare seemed destined to continue.  Unfortunately, his family didn’t have much wasta: a family’s ability to influence almost anything; students with enough wasta would always miraculously pass exams whatever their level and get the best jobs (I have since heard that the situation has changed and a much fairer system exists in that country).

The exams were taken and the papers distributed randomly among the English department’s teachers.  By chance, I had the student’s exam paper.  It was almost blank – hardly any of the questions had been answered.  I would like to say that I sat back in my chair in my apartment and spent ages deliberating over what to do, if anything.  I didn’t.  After a quick examination of his writing style – how he crossed his t’s and dotted his i’s, the slant direction of his writing (which was actually quite random) etc., I filled in his paper.  He passed with around an 80% mark, and so didn’t have to return to the school.  I would have loved to see his expression when he saw his English results…Fortunately, I haven’t had to deal with something like that since.

Anonymous - uploaded by Delv

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