Rethinking Education: Learning Over Grading
- Impact of Grade Obsession: Obsession with high grades stifles creativity and rational thinking, undermining students' intellectual growth and confidence.
- Systemic Flaws in Education: The grading system prioritizes marks over intellect, creativity, and holistic development, disadvantaging underprivileged students.
- Focus on Holistic Learning: Students should emphasize learning, creativity, and gradual skill development over the pursuit of inflated grades.
Academic grades seem to be life and death for students. Without a high score, a student cannot feel vociferous, creative, intellectual, or introspective owing to the bad performance in the class. Foregrounding the pressing issues of all students grappling with an immense burden of studies and the fear of getting high grades, I vocalize my opinions for all students to provide them a beacon of hope in such a competitive world. I agree with the concept of getting high grades, but is this the right way to judge the ability of a student? It is not an injustice for those underprivileged students who have weak academic backgrounds but are still striving for excellence. A plethora of questions hit my mind when I see the obsession of young students with getting high scores.
It is needless to say the minds of these students are shaped by such a societal structure in which creative thinking seems lost and heaps of good scores matter a lot. For instance, in the Dawn article “Higher Grades Obsession has Negative Effects: CIE Chief,” Mansoor Malik states that Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) Michael O’Sullivan posits that “Students and their parents are becoming obsessed with higher grades in examinations and called for limiting this tendency, saying it has negative effects.” Although the fear of not getting high grades urges students to study more, according to Sullivan, one may conjecture that such obsession leads to a worthless life. By ‘worthless life,’ I mention my standpoint that only standard and course study are not enough for students to succeed in their lives. To break Pandora’s box is highly quintessential for those students who are desirous to become writers, entrepreneurs, bureaucrats, professors, artists, etc.
To put it radically, in a Dawn article entitled “If Students Fail to Achieve Good Grades, It’s the Failure of the Education System,” Nida Mulji makes a logical claim to unveil the real concerns of those students who are encountering such challenges in their studies. I agree with her claim by saying that we are not doing justice to those students who are working hard to improve their basics of language owing to poor school backgrounds. Discouraging them with low grades is not effective for their subsequent journey. Broadly speaking, Mulji also raises serious concerns, and she aptly states that there are some loopholes in our education system. Are teachers concerned with the personal lives of students whose poor performance affects their grading scores? Do they care about the mental growth of students? If not, then how can we relegate those students who get low grades in their exams?
Analogously, in another Dawn article entitled “Rat Race: Rethinking Grades,” it could be argued that students’ obsession with grades can be a cause of teachers’ coercion. I believe that teachers are also responsible for giving preferences to those students who get A grades and relegating those students who get C or D grades in their papers. To explicate it further, this grading methodology of teachers undermines the main agenda of education, “strive for excellence, and aggravates students’ tension.
The fear of not getting high grades makes students less introspective. Students do not choose colossal tasks to create something innovative and mind-blowing. Due to this, students are not vociferous; they cannot even posit their arguments before their fellows due to a lack of confidence and rational thinking. They do not read books because they think that reading non-curriculum books is a waste of time. But in reality, this is the best way to enhance both rational thinking and writing skills.
Apart from that, another question arises as to whether our education system prefers preceding results or marks for admission in succeeding educational fields. I concur with this fact by saying that it is the failure of our education system, especially in some universities where the preceding result of any student helps them to get enrolled in any university. This is the flaw of our education system that prioritizes grades over students’ intellect and creative thinking. It could be argued that the inflated grading system relegates those students who are underprivileged, and it is unjust to them. I narrate one of the incidents that must be taken into account pertaining to this context.
For instance, I remember one of the girls in my neighborhood who was extraordinary and intelligent. She did not have the resources to study in a prestigious school, but she always seemed to be working hard day and night. One day she came to me and said, “When teachers prefer those students who are good at reading and writing, I feel worthless.” In response to her statement, I uttered, “Keep chasing your dreams; one day you will rise high.” From the vantage point of this story, it urges me to raise serious concerns about such a flawed educational system in our country where grades win over creative thinking and intellect.
Keeping all these facts in view, it is worth mentioning that students must prioritize focus on learning, not just grades. They need to understand the worth of knowledge instead of obsessing with grades. Likewise, students must think outside of the box. For example, if they are assigned any kind of topic, they must try to comprehend the basic concepts and gain more insights from different writers. By doing this, their creative abilities will increase, and they will perform better in exams. Similarly, there is a pressing need to set realistic goals and try to participate in extracurricular activities to hone their skills. Lastly, they need to prefer gradual learning over fast learning. They must believe that learning and acquiring knowledge are not bound with time and grades but by one’s interest. By applying such strategies in their personal lives, I believe that students can flourish in any field without obsessing over grades.
The author is a student at International Islamic University, Islamabad.
