Marking depression

Sometimes I wonder whether there is any point in me teaching at all...

It's exam script marking time. This year I have taught two different modules: a final year undergraduate optional module in a specialised topic of our general field (but one which receives a lot of attention in the media and scientific press) and a first year compulsory (for students taking a degree in our subject) introductory module covering a very very broad range of subjects. Let's take the first year module first. All our students are required to have good grades in maths and physics at A-level. The module uses some maths and a fair bit of physics, but is a mix of coursework done in class (calculations and analysis), on-line quizzes that also revise the material covered in lectures, and a longer assignment (students could choose from 3 options). The coursework counts for 50% and the rest comes from an exam that they sat on Thursday last week. Most students have passed on the coursework. However, I got to the point in marking the exam when I couldn't work out whether I was glad they hadn't written anything because I didn't have to plow through pages of brain-dump gibberish that directly contradicted itself trying to award marks for at least recognising which part of the course was being addressed, or depressed because they clearly had learnt/understood very little. I guess I will have to mark the resits so it's just delaying the inevitable. I hate to think how they will do in year 2 if they have just scraped through, but at least those who have failed will have to retake and pass it before they can progress...

The final year course was a little better - the usual bi-modal distribution of those who "got it" and those who didn't. However, here there is a different problem - these students will in all likelihood graduate from our programme despite doing very badly in a module that is more relevant to everyday life than most and on a topic which we would hope they could lead on in the outside world. And yet a significant number of them cannot reproduce the basic mechanisms in an exam. Now, whether it is merely the exam process that is an issue, and they do really know the answer I can only hope. Should I be asking our institution to change the graduation rules so that they HAVE to pass every module (rather than a certain % of credits)? Of course every student can have a bad day, and if a module (unlike mine) is based 100% on exam this could be a problem. But surely we shouldn't be allowing students to graduate who have failed one or more of their final year modules???