In the former times, India had Gurukuls where the teacher and the pupils used to live together in distant and shared information about gathering food, making weapons, learning the language and acquiring the values and religious rites. They lived in an environment in which they struggled to survive and developed skills that came up into cultural and educational patterns. However, in the modern day formally or informally all of us are educated, and we feel proud to say that we are educated but the real education is the overall development of mind, body, and soul. Modern day education is supported by a variety of technology, computers, projectors, and the internet, spreading diverse knowledge among the people but lacking cultural values. Everything has been simplified and every aspect of life has been explored by science. With the internet providing abysmal knowledge with no end to it, one can learn everything according to his/her wish, and our good and learned teachers who are masters in their field impart us with knowledge of what they know. But how important are your high school grades?
Grades in schools and colleges initially were intended as an effective means to learn but now it has transformed into a goal in itself, eventually forcing students to memorize answers and formulae that are necessary to pass an exam which leads to often disregarding true comprehension of the subject. The student’s personal development is becoming a footnote in this process, overshadowed by the significance of grades. The importance we give to grades within the perimeter of educational facilities does not coincide with the important companies give to trades. Laszlo Bock, Google’s former Senior Vice President says, “GPA scores are worthless as a criterion for hiring, they do not predict anything.” Passing in an examination cannot be considered as credible enough to claim that the same student has gained an extensive amount of knowledge by these exams. Grades are not an accurate representation of the performance and the knowledge gained. An alphabet cannot explain the inner knowledge gained by a student and grades are not an easy way of gauging a student’s level of performance and knowledge in the examinations. Moreover, it is not an exact scoring system. Suppose, that the science subject is the students weak point and with a tremendous effort he got an A grade for his attempts, still the inner knowledge gained by the student via these grades can be nil, as the student may have attempted for learning without understanding the concept, with the sole perspective of getting an A grade. Getting a B grade could force the students to put an extra effort to get an A grade which is a step closer to getting the highest mark in a class. But, the highest rank in the class is going to be of no good for the students.
Educational institution’s structural dependence on grades has led to a magnified level of importance that may lead us to develop substandard skills that do not decipher directly to the workspace. Today, everybody is a genius; if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. Similarly, personal feedback, as compared to grades, can help make a better future.
