ئەز   Masood Ahmed Hameed

Abstract Background Grading leniency and “Failure to Fail” phenomena have been widely documented in medical education, yet little research has explored these issues in the Middle Eastern context, particularly within Iraq’s medical and health sciences education programs. Faculty members often face emotional, cultural, and institutional pressures that influence their grading decisions. These factors can jeopardize academic integrity, student competency, and ultimately, patient safety. This study examines the key factors influencing faculty members’ decisions to pass underperforming students or award additional marks beyond academic merit. Methods A cross-sectional survey was distributed via Google Forms to 350 medical and health sciences educators in Iraq, exploring their grading decisions and the factors contributing to grading leniency and the “Failure to Fail” practices. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to examine the association between educator characteristics with grading leniency and decisions to pass failing students. Results A total of 152 responses were received (43.4% response rate). The results show that 38.3% of educators indicated passing students who should have failed, and 67.3% indicated awarding extra marks beyond what was warranted. Faculty members with primary clinical responsibilities were significantly more likely to both pass students who should have failed (OR = 8.3, P = 0.01), and award extra marks beyond what was warranted (OR = 6.1, P = 0.02), while those with more years of teaching experience were more stringent in their marking decisions (OR = 0.17, p = 0.01). The primary factors contributing to Grading leniency were personal (emotional) considerations and learner-related factors, while factors pertaining to available remediation options were the least emphasized. Only 28.3% of faculty members reported that they received institutional training on student assessment. Conclusions Grading leniency and “Failure to Fail” are key challenges in medical and health sciences education programs in Iraq. Our findings propose next steps for reform in Iraqi medical education system, including standardizing grading rubrics, implementing national assessment guidelines, and establishing mandatory faculty training programs. These reforms are needed for improving academic integrity and setting standards for graduates to become competent members of Iraq’s healthcare workforce.

Abstract Pigeons have accompanied humans since ancient time because they are used as a source of food, pets, hobby, and religious symbols. Pigeons have shown high prevalence rate of infection with gastrointestinal helminths and protozoan. This study was conducted to evaluate the prevalence of parasitic infections in the domestic pigeon (Columba livia domestica) from October, 2017 to April, 2018, purchased from bird market of Zakho City, Kurdistan region. The samples were taken from 50 adult pigeons (28 males and 22 females). The birds were transferred to Parasitology Laboratory, Faculty of Science, Zakho University. In the laboratory, each bird was sacrificed and immediately the feather and skin of under wings, chest and the rest of the body was examined for ectoparasites. The collected ectoparasites were preserved in 70% alcohol for further study. The sacrificed birds were dissected and their intestine and contained were examined for the presence of parasites. The results revealed a total rate of 76% of infection with ectoparasites, which included three species of lice, namely: Columbicola columbae (56%), Companulotes compar (36%) and Hohorstiella lata (10%). Regarding helminths, cestodes were the only helminths found in this study with a rate of 16% (8/50). Three species of cestodes were recorded, they included: Raillietina cesticillus(14%), Raillietina echinobothrida(4%) and Choanotaenia infundibulum (2%). Further studies are required to evaluate the effect of the recovered parasites on this host and their transmission to other poultry flocks and human. Keywords: Pigeon, Ectoparasites, Cestodes, Prevalence. Keywords Cestodes, Ectoparasites, Pigeon, Prevalence