We all have questioned the purpose and efficiency of grades, is it necessary? Or just an alphabet to measure the learning capacity? However, these questions are tricky. So, here we are highlighting some of our points.
Schools often provide grades to standardize the schooling system and it has widely helped our world today. Every one of us knows that if we get an “A “ we get a good paying job which means a better life for us and our family in the future. But see, Steve Jobs, for example, did not go to college and did not take the classes he was supposed to but in his life time, he has made billions of dollars when he invented the iPhone.
And parents today basically tell us to go to school just to get A’s so we can get a good job. We all know they mean well, but just because he was only B’s and C’s doesn’t mean that they were less intelligent than someone who has A’s and B’s.
Grades can have a great impact on how a child learns. Parents deserve to know how their children are doing in school and about their performances, therefore grades are regarded important in student’s progressive report.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Grades
- Competition is healthy but comparisons often leads to pressure among students. For example, the spirit of competition among the competitive students would reduce because the student who got 93% & who got 98% both of them would be equal in the sight of board, so I think the student with high marks will not feel well.
- The grading system is often regarded as a stress buster because if students cannot do well in exams even if he/she works hard for the whole year grades help them in that time.
- Not only are we sizing down students to mere numbers and letters. Grades are psychology affecting them. Not all, but there are a lot of students who sometimes don’t want to try anymore if they see a failing grade on their paper. Or through consecutive failure. Grades shouldn’t be how we judge student learning. Not only does it affect a student in terms of school, but also in life.
- Awarding of grades has a number of advantages over awarding of numerical marks. It considerably reduces examiner’s variability in marking. Lastly, it will reduce undesired and unsound comparison of small difference of marks.
- Lastly, students are lucky enough to be in schools where they don’t get letter or number grades are more likely to want to continue exploring whatever they’re learning, more likely want to challenge themselves, and more likely to think deeply. The evidence on all of these effects is very clear, and it seems to apply to students of all ages.