I do not know the number of students or parents who struggle with the current educational system and the way grades are meted out. But I would estimate that a large number does.

This post comes on the basis of a personal experience that I feel may be shared by many around and I hope to hear from those who have felt this way too.

Current System is Based on a Useless Metric

The initial seeds of this post were sown years ago when I started working in corporate life. What I observed was that success in the corporate world was not dictated by the grade point average that you received in your chosen field of education. And yet, the grade point is the only factor that is ever considered by educational institutions while choosing students for a specific course.

Outside of the corporate scenario too, the grade point or score had no contribution to make if one wanted to start one’s own company or start a practice. It did not help in ensuring any kind of independence of any kind – physical (commuting, travelling, feeding oneself, keeping safe), emotional (managing stress, dodging hurdles, taking feedback, controlling anger), or financial (managing investments, saving up, buying assets). I have seen many a topper fumble when it came to managing finances, emotions, or finding solutions to practical issues of living.

This might be something that you have heard before but the grade point or score is only a manifestation of how much knowledge one could assimilate and spew back on to the paper.

Consequences of the System

The entire educational system seems to be running on a farce. While there are many schools that do focus on character development and nurturing the individual, they have to bow down to the larger-than-life system and push their older children towards paying obeisance to the Lord Grade! What this means is that there is a lot of concentration on values, life skills, open-mindedness, curiosity, individuality and the like in the initial years and then suddenly as the child approaches senior school, one is told that we have to work towards attainment of Lord Grade!

For some who have the ability to retain information and reproduce it, it comes easy. These are the ones who are able to beat the system and (assuming they have the other things in place) emerge strong.

There are others who just know how to beat the system by cramming and have ignored all the other life lessons that should have been learnt. They belief that if proper rituals are performed (meaning excessive studying to attain the grade), the Lord Grade will be pleased and shower blessings. Things are smooth for them till they are in the education space but life starts to get more complicated as they step into the real world on their own!

And then there are those who are not able to beat the system at all. They are not able to put their individualistic tendencies aside to go through the rhythms and the mundaneness of the curriculum. They are the ones who are penalized immensely. Their confidence is broken, they are called losers, and they suffer the judgmental eyes of the teachers, the society, and the world too!

By choosing to hold Lord Grade in such high regard, we demoralize many!

The New Proposed System

All the psychological studies conducted on children show us how reward works better than punishment in motivation. And yet, when we mete out lower grades, we kill the zest for life of those who are not able to study, focus, understand or reproduce black & white lines from a textbook.

We try and shape our children’s beliefs, we try and make them emulate us, and we try to own them (see Khalil Gibran’s poem shared) by making them live by the rules that we have created.

Based on spirituality, each of us carries within us unique and endless potential and each one of us has ourselves to offer to this world. No one is a failure till he/she wants to keep trying and so, let’s not shove our children into a system that classifies them as one!

I am sure educationists and corporates can make this change happen if they wanted to by deciding to change the rules.

Let schools be a place where children learn teamwork, self-care, self-love, motivation, time-management, kindness, accepting responsibility, facing failure, asking questions, exploring the world, respecting the environment, positivity, humility, emotional intelligence, self-discipline, confidence, making mistake, life skills, reading, writing, basic numbers, and no more.

Let schools be a place where any child can sit in any class based on his interest at that time. Let there be no exams at all, ever! Let the children learn what they want to, when they want to, how they want to. Let all possible opportunities be provided to them to learn and explore what they want to.

At the end of year 16, let them decide what they want to explore first in the real world and apprentice with people in that area. Let the apprenticeship be decided on the basis of an interview where the rapport between the teacher and apprentice be established.

Let this be the start of a journey that will lead to contribution in a way that seems meaningful to our student.

Amen!

If you wanted to talk about how you can manage your own barriers to allow your children to establish individuality despite today’s educational system, get in touch and let’s talk!

Featured Image by: Ekrulila from Pexels