Marking papers

I have been correcting the answer sheets of the mid-term examination for a few days now. A few days?? You ask. I was hoping to finish the chore in a day or two but one look at the answer sheets lying in front of me led to frustration on a whole new level.

It is not like I expect my students to have great knowledge of the English language. Knowing fully well about their school background, it would be wrong on my part to put the entire blame on them. The academic system, the faculty etc. are all equal stakeholders in their current plight. But the fact that they never speak in English or even try to read a novel or two gets reflected in their writings. Here are some of the key mistakes I remember as I type this post:

1. The village people, the hindu people, the muslim people etc.
2. Proverty instead of poverty
3. Brahmins are belong to the upper cast
4. Illitrate instead of illiterate
5. Bhidhism instead of Buddhism
6. Hindhism instead of Hinduism
7. Cristining instead of Christianity

I suppose now you fully understand how I must have felt as I corrected those answer sheets. Instead of the target two days, I ended up spending a day on 5-6 sheets, taking a break and then getting back to begin the process all over again.

Teaching seems like a challenging job all of a sudden. I do not have an idea of what follows next in the coming few months.