Grades are never more important than knowledge

A question that has lingered with me since I was a child. Now as an educator, it still haunts me. Do we really need to judge students merely on their marks?

We cannot undermine the importance of marks or grades, but perhaps it's tactless to focus merely on this. Instead, we should slowly move towards making students learn for knowledge, since marks just determine how well they were prepared for reproducing their learning in a structured manner in writing There can be different reasons for a student losing marks: lack of sleep, lack of preparation or revision, being unable to write in a structured manner, being better at orals than written exams, unwell during the examination, or even some personal loss, etc. So why do we judge students only on marks???

When children have different ways of learning, then why not for assessing the learner on individual skills. That’s where the differentiation concept of assessment has taken a leap. But we again fall short when it comes to mainstream class X and XII. The students struggle to fit in. Most times, we are just told to study History, Geography, English, Hindi without even knowing why we are studying these. Let me get to this in a different way. I am sure all of us at one point of time would have wondered, why is it that i need to study? this particular topic(it can be calculus, clauses, …anything) but seldom are we told about its application or use in the real world.?

How good is knowledge, if I know theoretically how a light bulb works, but am unable to look at a bulb and say if it will work or not. Hence, focus on consistency and acquiring knowledge should be given more importance than marks or grades.

With technological advancements in the education sector, I have embraced the research-oriented teaching learning process, where like all other professions even teachers need to constantly upgrade their knowledge. With every year of tech savvy batches passing out, the teacher has become merely a facilitator who guides them towards the path. We have to become those who will take learners towards knowledge and will instill in them a love for learning.

Enjoy the process of learning, learn from your mistakes. Don't be afraid to say, “I Don’t know this?”. Be open-minded and absorb knowledge. But remember, knowledge is useless if you don't know how to apply it appropriately.?

Thrive to be Life-long learners, rather than mere learning for a particular test or examination.