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–Photos by Fayyaz Ahmed/Dawn.com
When it boils down to it, one of the most insidious problems with our education system is its emphasis on grades. Every year, thousands of students are reduced to a letter or number that is not really a reliable indicator of caliber or intellect. How can one diminish a student’s two year effort to one mark earned after a two or three hour exam? Yet this is precisely what we do. The negative impact of this grading on the way our students think, operate and see the world is becoming increasingly obvious.
Educationists and psychologists argue that a reliance on grades as a tool to motivate students is actually detrimental to the process of learning. Having taught for over three years myself, I agree. I cannot make a student love to read by brandishing a -10 at him. To force students to study a subject out of fear is to make it a drag for them. Bonus marks or failing grades serve only to increase anxiety and resentment; they do nothing to motivate students to take an earnest interest in the subject that they study.
Moreover, since grades are the only thing that students are taught to care about, they put in just enough effort to scrape by. I have seen students harass university professors to ‘narrow down’ the scope of a literary text and tell them which ‘five questions’ they should study from so that they can do well in an exam. Ideas such as research, the joy of discovery in critical thought and delving deeper into the book just because it is a profound read leave these students cold. Will all this extra effort be graded? No. Then why do it? So much so, that end of year examinations with their selective studying and cheating do nothing to promote learning or education: many rote learners will proudly boast a first division on their university degree and yet be unable to string a coherent sentence together.
Perhaps the most detrimental effect that our emphasis on grading has had is to kill the spirit of creativity. Most of our A/B graders are not risk takers. They like to play it safe. They don’t like to waste time studying anything ‘outside the syllabus’. Most of all, they hate to make a mistake, a quality which, according to Sir Ken Robinson, is the very antithesis of creative thinking. Solutions to a problem are acquired only after trial and error. But a schooling based on tests, quizzes, evaluations and exams does not reward but rather punishes any ‘out of the box’ approaches.
This is not to devalue all our A-graders. Rather, it is to say that the A grade devalues students who are intelligent, hard working, and passionate about learning, because it gives no credit to the extra work they put in over the course of their study. The system does not motivate them to take on anything that will challenge them – if they can get an A while sitting within their comfort zones, then so be it. A system based on grades rewards the very mediocrity that we complain is seeping into our national character.
Lastly, grades just aren’t reliable. Some of my most brilliant students are not good exam-takers and it is monumentally unfair that the work they put in during two or more academic years is completely disregarded in one examination session. Many universities and even schools have to resort to interviewing applicants and potential students, despite their excellent grades, because their results do not necessarily indicate work ethic, diligence or intelligence for that matter.
If education is the route to success and the foundation of society, our system seems to be creating a nation that is lazy, apathetic and which cuts corners. There is no joy in learning here. There is cynicism with statements like ‘So what if I didn’t attend school, I got an A didn’t I’? A society where the end justifies the means and a single grade determines a student’s fate is a society bound to stagnate. Not only do we need to re-think the amount of emphasis we give to education in this country, we also need to focus on how to educate our youngsters and what we are teaching them in the process.
Shazaf Fatima has studied English Literature from the University of Karachi. She is a teacher and a writer based in Karachi.
The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.
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Comments (37) Closed
Aug 31, 2011 04:52pm
Our system of education is just a playing field where you just have to compete and stay ahead of others whereas it should be educate and bring creativity in our youth. I am totally against this system and i don't see any miracle to happen in near future.
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Aug 31, 2011 05:23pm
I agree with you but I don't think we should get rid of grading altogether because it serves a useful purpose too. What do you have in mind as an alternative?
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Aug 31, 2011 05:29pm
True True Very Much True Khalid :( I wish recruiters would give greater importance to the creative abilities of the candidates when recruiting.......it will prove many times more beneficial for the recruiting organizations
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Aug 31, 2011 06:04pm
That is the reason our education system produces nothing but Clerks. Our education system is such that creativity, innovation, out of box approaches to the matters and entreprenuerial attitudes are disregarded and supressed viz a viz our corporate culture and to a large extent our society.
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Aug 31, 2011 06:10pm
Iqtedar, I don't think getting rid of grades is the answer. There need to be other indicators of performance which need to be given equal if not more consideration. Course work, for instance. Increased feedback on quarterly performance. The problem with most of the alternatives is that they require a lot more involvement in terms of time and money. Grades provide the easiest and most convenient means of assessment. But, as I said, I think they're a very poor indicator of how good a student really is.
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Aug 31, 2011 06:16pm
A very concise and well-written article that highlights one of the most unsung problems of education in our country. Learning through fear and memorisation is making our students submissive slaves to a faulty system whch stresses conformity as a means to success. The erosion of intellectual individuality makes students unconfident and unable to communicate ideas that are not centered around a syllabus. I believe that the fault is due to a lack of a hidden curriculum, the failure of teachers to instill a passion for learning and reading at an early age and to give constructive criticism.
A move towards courses in which a percentage of the grade is based on coursework and a higher focus on activities like debating where the focus is on critical thought is needed.
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Aug 31, 2011 07:22pm
grades are detrimental to the teachers as well - they are judged on the results they produce and therefore focus only on that part of their work that is related to getting their students ready for exams. its a vicious, vicious circle .... we need teachers who are willing to teach for the sake of the subject, take on the system without worrying about their jobs - idealistic i know but if you cant expect it of them, who can you expect it from - the politicians?
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Aug 31, 2011 07:59pm
I agree 100%.I have been such a victim of grades myself:(
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Aug 31, 2011 08:24pm
I agree with every thing said here! the Situation is worse for students studying in Karachi Board System! Where not only are the students and teachers restricted to studying and teaching only that which is part of the course but the syllabus itself is frustrating! they are forced to still study what their grandparents used to study!
just go over class ninth English Compulsory book!
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Sep 01, 2011 12:18am
Somewhere out there is a telling soul who knows exactly what a logarithmic function is and how repetition can improve performance on particular tasks across time. Simply knowing how to square a circle is very different from understanding why we're trying to do it. The greatest thing about intelligence, though, is that it'll seep through, grading or no grading.
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Sep 01, 2011 12:39am
I agree with the author that the grading system has its issues but the real issue is the education system itself. How can we grade for creativity if no opportunity is provided for creativity in the curriculum or encouraged by the society at large?
In Pakistan, the emphasis is on rote learning but that should not be the real purpose of education. Good education should promote broad minded thinking, self-confidence and leadership. The educational system in Pakistan produces conformists or job seekers but it does not develop independent thinkers or entrepreneurs. The syllabus is obsolete, for example, in sixteen years of science education at top schools in Pakistan, I was not taught anything scientific about the formation of universe, evolution or dinosaurs.
I speak from my personal experience after having been educated in Pakistan (engineering at WPUET Lahore 1965), England and USA. Grading is still the key here (like SAT scores or GPA) but the school system stays up to date and develops many diverse skills.
Ashraf Malik,
North Carolina, USA
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Sep 01, 2011 01:03am
THANK YOU for writing this article! In the years of my higher education I have not gained the useful skills that should be present in a graduate level student - critical and creative thinking. Always the teachers have been blind to motivating students to think on their own and encouraging the good results of those who rote learn and get 'A's. Another problem lies with the teachers and their desire for students to think like they do, which is not always beneficial, there is no skill is knowing textbook answers or following another person's line of thought. It ultimately kills your own logical and critical thinking abilities. This has also led to another type of though among students 'There's no point in working hard when our efforts yield no result'
I sometimes regret my decision to pursue higher education in Pakistan. I wish that over here teachers taught and trained us more in learning through research and analysis, preparing us to be equal to standards abroad. Sadly, to this day, grades and GPA's rule a students worth. It is sad that some undeserving people get scholarships and opportunity to study abroad, just because they were good at rote learning and wrote what the teachers wanted them to write!
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Sep 01, 2011 01:04am
Its very much true
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Sep 01, 2011 01:45am
what a brilliant piece of work, i must say.
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Sep 01, 2011 04:25am
Under our education system we create Talib-e-number not Talib-e-ilm.
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Sep 01, 2011 08:24am
Iagree,,may be grades should expand to more activities/proof of input in other areas of learning than only results of a certain exam or excersize..very well written pice though Shazaf!
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Sep 01, 2011 08:38am
On the spot. A much-needed voicing of the truth. As a homeschooling mother, I see my children learn out of their inborn curiosity, and not for artificial, external reasons. I see them retain what they learn, because they learnt out of self-initiative. And I see how much they know by staying with them, and by listening to them, and know how unfair and inaccurate it would be if someone were to come and drill them with questions to 'find out' what they knew or did not know. Homeschooling is growing all over the worlds, including Pakistan.
I highly recommend John Holt's books 'how children learn' and 'teach your own'. He was an ex-schol teacher, and a father of the homeschool movement in USA. The speech 'why schools don't educate' by John Taylor Gatto, school teacher for almost 3 decades, is eye-opening. It is available online.
I discovered homeschooling over 7 yrs ago. The term homeschooling makes people ask: If the child wont go to school, how will he socialize, learn discipline, or get into university. You can find answers to these on the net or by meeting homesclg familioes.
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Sep 01, 2011 08:54am
well written.... Hope it be well read by the authorities concerned if there are any in Pakistan.....
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Sep 01, 2011 09:19am
There is no joy in learning because there is no aim. School for the sake of school or learning for the sake of learning hardly could be a source of joy. If a Primary School in a middle-class neighborhood in Singapore is all alive with sheer enthusiasim, it may not have to do with the Ivy League credentials of a school teacher or the disproportionatly higher salary of the principal. It may have to do with a common understanding that exsit between those who wish to educate and those who are there to be educated. That common understanding rests upon the following premise: What is the nature of the current post-industrial and post-information world and how to prepare to meet the demands of such a world. If the eleven year olds in Singapore have mastered the basics in science and the eleven year olds in other countries making schools like a prison camps, there is a reason.
The reason Germany is a success in Europe and Singapore is a success in Asia because they are serious in turning high-end workers in science and technology as well as highly educated force to meet the rapidly changing advanced indusrtrial world. Both countries do not meet the demand. They are ahead of the game. Singapore claims no resource like oil or gas or timber or even sand and yet cause the other giants in the game of trade to sweat.
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Sep 01, 2011 10:31am
All teachers & educationists do of course know that the * grading system * is not at all appropriate.
Can anyone, please, suggest ( in detail) a practical and effective alternative. As long as this system holds,
do not expect students to chase * knowledge or to be creative in their home-work *. So, the potential employer has no alternative except to do his own * grading * during an interview. However, that too can be grossly hasty and unfair. ** We life in an imperfect world **
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Sep 01, 2011 11:11am
I agree with your insight however i also feel that in the eye of a student, socialising at schools weighs greater than the the actual studying and theory part of the education system, so maybe we should incorporate a teaching system that involves more practical and social correspondence which will definitely entice and stimulate their skills for a more efficient system hence leading to a more structural grading.
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Sep 01, 2011 01:10pm
Thank you for all your comments.
I suppose ONE very basic way in which we can start helping is not to succumb to the glamour of the grade. It is indeed necessary to score well in order to get into an institution of our choice. But students respond to the praise or criticism heaped upon them by parents, society and elders based on their results. I had a student who was dropping English because she was getting rubbish. Her father asked her whether she was learning anything. She said yes. He said 'Forget the grade. Get a C if it means you learn something in the process.' We need more people like this father around our students.
Every year we have a couple of students with an astonishing number of A grades in a variety of subjects. They are given coverage and extolled for being talented ON THIS BASIS ALONE. 29 As, for instance, is no mean feat. But shouldn't one question what motivated the student to take so many subjects in the first place? The experience of learning in itself is compromised with such a huge load: it's quantity over quality. Also, one should not dismiss students who do not manage to get these As as 'lacking' in any way. Personality, creativity, original thinking can be assessed without an exam.
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Sep 01, 2011 01:18pm
thanks for this information! I'm definitely going to look up this speech. And the books listed here are easily available?
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Sep 01, 2011 01:23pm
Rihanna, I've often felt the same sense of despair. I stayed back while all my friends went to study abroad. But here's the thing about education: it's what you make of it. I had a mix of very good and some truly terrible teachers. My main problem was the atmosphere which was less than invigorating - the people around me were just not interesting in learning. But in such an atmosphere, one must learn to compete with one self, to do the best that one can do. Local institutes are great because they teach you how to get around red-tape, bureaucracy and teach you how to get the max out of a situation. This is as important, if not more, than the content of what you're studying. When you work, you'll have to re-learn the subject any way. So despair not!
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Sep 01, 2011 03:05pm
Insightful article. Our schools in Pakistan are not houses of learning, they are factories where we mass produce labor as is needed by the economy of the time. We are merely regurgitating force fed data as presented by the ruling classes to get degrees about as valuable as doorstops to work in 'jobs' to pay for things we don't need. Schools should nurture the creative spirit, independent thought, critical debate and a genuine passion for learning. Instead, we study purely for grades, exams and tests. For what? So other people can tell us how much we know, how smart we are. The education system does not cater to intelligence outside of the rigid syllabus set by incompetent bureaucrats. As long as you can memorize page after page without questioning or doubting its validity, you're bound to succeed not only in school nut throughout Pakistani society.
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Sep 01, 2011 03:54pm
Shazaf Fatimaji, thank you for the lovely and eye-opening article you've written. Please keep up the good work. I hope your voice is heard in the entire sub-continent by the relevant authorities and that they choose to listen and act appropriately.
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Sep 02, 2011 12:53am
Agreed. You have pointed out the very basic flaw of our educational system but didn't come up with the solution.
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Sep 02, 2011 06:45am
I am amazed at the clarity in youre thought process.Coming from our defunct education system and then being a part of it by joining the teaching profession,you have the gift of insight,and the power to criticise constructivey.
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Sep 02, 2011 08:08am
Thank you Shazaf Fatima for an insightful article. Our policy makers are well aware of the problem you highlighted but they lack the alternative as well the will to confront the situation. It may also be appreciated that schooling/education systems have their inertia and they are probably the slowest to change. But this offers no excuse for not bringing in the desired change in our education system.
Unfortunately, we are not appreciating the demands placed on our current and future generations by the fast changing but highly competitive world. While we understand that world has really turned to be a global village, we are miserably failing in preparing our young generations to compete in this global world -- and reason alone is that we are producing FOLLOWERS and not the LEADERS. Present grading system and rote learning are the direct causes of our this failure. To address the issue, first of all we will have to have our indigenous education system reflective of our national aspirations and in that we must adopt a balanced system of evaluation which helps us in identifying strengths of individual students to be appropriately used in various fields. We need to remember that we are a young nation of over 50% under 30 years of age. We can tremendously benefit from this young human resource which besides being our national asset can be highly useful to international community, provided they are enabled through balanced education without being victim of rote learning and present Grade Based evaluation system.
Just a last comment -- existing Grade based system develops among our students INDIVIDUALISTIC Psyche. Resultantly, students take pride in individual achievements ( no matter achieved at what cost) in their academic careers. However, such an approach proves detrimental to their growth later in their professional careers particularly when they are confronted to survive in an environment where leadership and group based solutions are most needed.
This is high time for our policy makers and intellectuals to pay attention to the problem and look for comprehensive overhaul of the education system. We have many models to learn from, provided there exists a will to change.
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Sep 02, 2011 08:30am
I do not see any alternative to grading system. How do you expect recruiter, admission office to measure the student ability considering the fact probably there are many students applying? You cannot expect them to take all. Consequently they used grading.
I believe this kind of education system exists not just in Pakistan, but all over the world at least university level. There was a famous educationist (I forgot his name) was complaining about this too.
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Sep 02, 2011 09:25am
I agree with the gist of what ur saying but "A system based on grades rewards the very mediocrity that we complain is seeping into our national character" is just a flawed statement im sorry. i understand that grading, is at some level or the other, a normative an even arbitrary exercise but his significant value and cannot just be shrugged aside as the sole cause of our ills. our systems encourage rote learning not because we end up taking an exam in the end but because our teachers and teaching systems lack innovation and creativity. tell me how many teachers in our schools and universities actually spend a significant portion of their time deciding what questions to form and how in order to best test the reasoning and analytical abilities of students as opposed to just copy pasting from past exams, past papers, etc. You have grading systems everywhere across the world, and i will not deny the fact that there is some element of rote learning, some element of grade centric competitiveness, some loss of 'purpose of learning', some leverage to quantity over quality but the rot is not as deep as in our affairs. professors in all universities grade students, but between a student who just hands in assignments and does a 'ghissa pita' exam back home versus someone lets say here in my university who is challenged by not just the type of questions but also the nature of exams (take homes, vivas, etc.) because the professors take a genuine interest in testing their students as opposed to getting the job done and making grading of finals easy for themselves. forgive me but ive been a teacher for a couple of years too and i saw how my fellow teachers at a renowned aptitude prep center got away with 'teaching the tricks' in aptitude tests that really do measure ur intellect on a linear scale, whereas i tried to teach them what was going on. and frankly while many students just cared about getting the final score a significantly large number were extremely interested in getting a grasp on the ideas they were being tested and didnt mind learning some irrelevant material in the flow of things. Grades arent responsible. those who prepare students for them and those who dish them out are. Also heres an idea, instead of condemning a system based on grades, can you please identify an alternative? I am sure that at the scales at which 'education' is imparted, there exist none. Yes we dont have grades at the Primary school level , and they dont really matter at the PhD level but for everything in between they serve the purpose of sorting out and categorizing people for the sake of social darwinism.
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Sep 02, 2011 11:08am
No doubt our current system of evaluation is not working properly or delivering what is needed from it. But the problem is that in University system teacher or a professor has so many powers that students rarely come to him to discuss his problems. Most students never the teacher what is their problem regarding the subject they are studying. So evaluation and monitoring is the only way a teacher can get a sort of feedback. However since the number of students in a class is more than 50 so it is very difficult to analyze the result of a quiz or one hour examination during semester. Also its very difficult to set up a good paper normally teachers set papers without thinking about anything what they are going to test. So there is a need teachers should be trained in setting up papers and doing evaluations of students during semester. Second semester system does not have any time for teacher and for student. Only four months are given in which you have to teach a subject, evaluate students and monitor students progress and this all with large of students. So its nearly impossible for all this.
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Sep 02, 2011 02:51pm
Teaching process, innovation & creativity in learning and the grading system , all are intrinsically linked. Education policy, teaching institutions, teachers, parents and the students, all have a role to improve the situation. In the modern education system, parents are essential part of education process but role of parents is hardly discussed and appreciated. Parents too are oblivious of their responsibility and in most cases neither enabled nor interested to play their due role.
We direly need a change in teaching philosophy. Instead of solution based shackled approach we may adopt issue based learning process encouraging the students to come out with varying solutions of a given problem. Teachers Training System to equip teachers with innovative teaching skills is a must. Status and image of teachers in the society needs to be lifted. Teachers at all levels need to identify themselves with this noble profession through highest sense of commitment and motivation. Ofcourse, this all is contingent upon the education environment of the country which we ought to improve through successive policy measures. That is why, a comprehensive overhaul of the education system which takes care of all levels of education, is suggested . This means introducing a change in learning environment which uniformly runs from lowest to highest grades of our education system.
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Sep 02, 2011 03:24pm
Some sort of grading/ranking system is required. The world has a bulging population of average performers. Need not worry about the top band and the low band. Top anyway will do well ; the low will not even be bothered about the evaluation. What we need is a system of evaluation clearly stating the following. Maximum Score, Minimum Score and Average score of the population appeared for the examination. Absolute score of the individual, number of people appeared for the exam and the percentile of the individual in the group.
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Sep 02, 2011 03:30pm
I have read column and some of comments too. I feel to say something. I have experienced both conventional methods of education at primary level and advanced or research based education (saying advanced and research just to differentiate) at university level but honestly, I could not find much difference. I believe that there is nothing wrong in grades but problem is in methods of achieving grades. The system of primary education does matter a lot especially when moving to higher education, I think that is why it is named as "primary" education. The basic education actually develops a method or a way thinking or perceiving things in our future. I did baccalaureate degree under a semester system and I know how hard I had to deal with habit of "laziness". But I know that there are many factors that assist existing educational system. The most important factor is incompetency of teachers and the second one is the difference between theory and practicals. Many times it feels that when book is closed, we are moved in another world. In my whole career, I could not find any sort of bridge between these two worlds. I think this is the dilemma and this is what was taught.
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Sep 02, 2011 06:28pm
Very true! Whether one like it or not, the ultimate purpose of educational system in this society is to create trained and obedient monkeys who are depoliticized and unable to question anything.
And ultimate 'touches' are given in universities where it is made sure that anyone passing out is impotent for sure, ideologically and socially.
Like every other field of life artificial competition is imposed upon the students from above to make them "productive" and it is taught directly or indirectly that one must place his feet onto the heads of other to go to the "top".
"Productive" in capitalism means someone generating more surplus/profit for his boss in practical life and standards of success is money in this profit based system.
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Sep 03, 2011 09:08am
I feel that when it comes to education, a complete overhauling of the system is necessary and this is what makes people feel helpless. However, I must quote another teacher who works with and around the system:The only immediate solutions i've found (failing a better system of assessment) Is to accept the challenge to motivate students to love learning for its own sake: communicate your own passion for the subject, recognize and reward effort, not only academic acomplishment, and give every student a voice and respect for his/her opinions.' This isn't terribly difficult to do. I do think change is in the hands of the teachers and a change in attitude for everyone involved. With little steps like these, we can change the face of education in this country.
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