Tutorial Participation

Quoting from one of my lecturers, "A tutorial is a learning environment where people exchange knowledge and learn from each other."

I totally agree with this statement, however, by awarding participation marks during tutorial totally defeats the purpose in my opinion. People who are already strong in the subject will have minimal problems in preparing for the tutorials, so each time during tutorial, the same person will "volunteer" to present the answers, and get a big bonus for answering the question. At the same time, weaker students will fall back further and further in the marking scheme as the bonus is really so huge (17%). This awarding of the marks really destroyed the learning environment.

He compares the awarding of participation marks to the "principle that is similar to a taxation system where the wealthier segment of the society pays more taxes.", but in fact, here, he is giving the rich more riches, and depriving the poor of their needs - a system that will lead to corruption.

The way he argues his point reminds me of one of my platoon mates, a !@#$%. How can this environment makes learning happy.