GRADING SYSTEM IN EDUCATION: ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

What is a Grading System?

A grading system in education is a system that is used to assess the educational performance of a
child which is entirely based upon points alone.

The grading system does not provide an opportunity to make the child think out of the box or
freely develop the thinking about any inkling of an idea or get involved with any of the intellectual
speculation.

But still, this method is widely regarded in many of the schools across the world and is kept as a
strong and viable medium to adjudge a child’s grasping and reciprocating ability by grading
them.

The initial type of appraisal was by the marks where the marks for all the questions were totaled to
get grand total marks.

Types of Grading Systems

There are 7 types of grading systems available. They are :

1. Percentage Grading – From 0 to 100 Percent

2. Letter grading and variations – From A Grade to F Grade
3. Norm-referenced grading – Comparing students to each other usually letter grades
4. Mastery grading – Grading students as “masters” or “passers” when their attainment
reaches a prespecified level
5. Pass/Fail – Using the Common Scale as Pass/Fail
6. Standards grading (or Absolute-Standards grading) – Comparing student performance to a pre-
established standard (level) of performance
7. Narrative grading -Writing Comments about students

There are many people who declare there are many advantages of the modern education system
and there are also others who say the complete opposite. Well, both sides have a fair share of
arguments to support their views completely.

WHAT MADE THE SCHOOL TO CHOOSE THIS GRADING SYSTEM?

School is a sacrosanct place and is touted to be the second home of children.

Today in the rapid life that we are living in, most of the parents are office goers and school
becomes a safe haven to leave their children behind and go. Thus, schools play an essential part in
the wholesome and the holistic development of each and every student they have got enrolled
with.

It does not merely perform as an intermediate in which the children study and imbibe new things
and habits but, they also are depicted to the actual world where they get to interrelate with their
landed gentry and learn many things through understanding which nothing else can provide.
They feel that as technology is advancing, new forms of teaching, guiding and other features
should also be improved. One such feature is using a grading system in education to judge a
student’s capability and knowledge.

The main reason for the schools to exist in the world is to impart knowledge to the students who
are studying in it and assessing the students thereby forms a vital part of the performance of the
school which is usually carried as a two-way method.

ADVANTAGES OF SCHOOL GRADING SYSTEM

1. Discrimination among the students-
The grading system makes it possible to create discrimination among the students. The studious
can be easily discriminated from the average students and the below average students. When the
studious, average and below average are discriminated they are divided into different group of
same category. This makes it possible for the teachers to focus on teaching the average and below
average group of students in a much effective manner and making the concepts clear to them. This
method has also brought the advantage to the students that their grading will be assessed based on
their performance in their assignments, projects, answering abilities and their overall performance
in examination.

2. Students get to know about their strength and weakness-

The grading system enables the students to have a clear idea about their strengths and weaknesses.
They clearly know about the subjects in which they are weak and can work effectively upon those
subjects. This helps them in gaining command over the weak subjects.

3. Relieve the students from the pressure of scoring-

The general grading system where students are assigned grades from O to A has helped the
students a lot in getting rid of the pressure that aroused out of attaining more and more marks. The
students now do not strive to score more marks. In fact, they are happy scoring GPA’s and not
being compared to other students.

4. Rendezvous of ideas-
When students are taught a concept or subject in classroom they develop a sense of responsibility
to work upon their parts. Thus, this helps in building the sense of engagement among the students
to learn about a particular subject or topic in which they are weak.

DISADVANTAGES OF SCHOOL GRADING SYSTEM:

1. It does not serve as an accurate scoring system-

The grading system does not serve as an accurate scoring system. Suppose the students may have
scored A or C in any subject but these would have made great disparity in the student’s sense of
accomplishment. Sometimes, the actual knowledge gained by the students is nil as compared to
their grades thus, these do not serve as an accurate scoring system and fail to depict the actual
knowledge gained by the students in their academic session.
2. Does not accurately present the performance of student-
The grading system also fails to clearly depict the actual performance of the students. These only
show the grades attained or marks scored by the students and fail to show the actual level of
performance of the students.

3. Does not show the knowledge gained by students-

Attaining grades in examination does not clearly show the amount of actual knowledge gained by
students. Some students are actually weak at writing and are not able to showcase their knowledge
merely through an examination. Thus, the grading system fails to impart a clear view of
knowledge of the students.

4. Does not put in a sense of competition-

Students these days mainly aim at attaining the passing marks and does not get involved in an
intense competition to score more marks. This lack of sense of hitting the competition makes them
go lazy and they do not focus much on attaining more marks.

SO, IS THE GRADING SYSTEM A BETTER ONE?

Even though there are several disadvantages of the grading system it has removed several
disadvantages of the marking system.

As a recent survey has shown that with the advent of the grading system in education, the number
of students who give importance to education has got drastically reduced as this notion stems from
the fact that the grades are a fleeting sort of thing and are able to fetch only in the short-term and
have no use in the long run.

OTHER DISADVANTAGES OF GRADING SYSTEM IN EDUCATION:

Also, the following points can be considered as worthy of our importance while considering the
disadvantages of the grading system in education. They are,

1. It doesn’t instill a sense of competition:

When all that required is a mere pass mark, we would neither have the urge to outperform others
nor do we want to excel with the overall grades.

The A grade speaks a lot about our caliber than a D or an F. With a D or an F, we can be only
satisfied that we are okay enough in studies, which will make us go lazy.

2. Not an accurate representation of the performance and the knowledge gained:

As we have said already, passing in an examination cannot be considered as plausible enough to
declare that the same student has gained an immense amount of knowledge by these exams.
An alphabet cannot explain the inner knowledge gained by a student and there is no easy way of
gauging a student’s level of performance and knowledge in the examinations.

3. It is not an exact scoring system:

Suppose, let us consider that the science subject is your weak point and with a tremendous effort,
let us say that you got an A or a C for all your attempts, which would have made a vast disparity in
your sense of accomplishment.

Still, the inner knowledge you have gained via these grades can be nil, as you may have attempted
for learning without understanding the concept, with the sole perspective of getting an A or a C.

4. Lack of incentives:
The traditional letter grade system considers that every alphabet is an inducement to perform good
or better or the best.

Getting a B could kindle the students to put an extra effort to get an A and is a step closer to
getting the highest mark in a class. But, the highest rank in the class tag is going to do no good for
the students.

To get the tag, the students will only go for rote learning rather than be exploring and explaining
the concepts on their own.

OTHER AREAS OF CONSIDERATION:

The fact that a student scores a centum without any mistakes and a student who scores 90 replete
with several mistakes grouped together can make the centum holder get de-motivated.

This will dampen the spirits of the hard worker to get mediocre grades itself, as he or she will
know that irrespective of the grades, they are going to be placed in the cream students section
only.

Moreover, the responsibility now lies on the subject teacher and their candid estimation of a
particular student who is sent for the overall grading rather than estimating the true merit and
caliber of that student.

Thus, these are the unfair advantages that this system poses while considering it as an able system
to motivate the students in order to perform better.

The disadvantages of grading system thus include the piece of information that the students cannot
be distinguished with respect to the fellow ones as more than two students with different
capabilities in terms of their understanding and grasping power and prowess will automatically
fall into the same group.

Thus a teacher will not be able to know which person needs more special attention than the other.
So, is the Grading System a Better One?
Even though there are several disadvantages of the grading system it has removed several
disadvantages of the marking system.

As a recent survey has shown that with the advent of the grading system in education, the number
of students who give importance to education has got drastically reduced as this notion stems from
the fact that the grades are a fleeting sort of thing and are able to fetch only in the short-term and
have no use in the long run.

Especially when these students appear to college entrance examinations with these grades and a
nil amount of knowledge, these grades will not speak on behalf of them.

Grades without knowledge is like a batsman going to a cricket field without a bat to play a cricket
match. In the same way, the schools should also come forward to implement some changes in
their already designed curriculum to make the students get proactive in order to learn in a
meaningful way so that the concept remains with them all through their life.

Conclusion:
As long as schools carry on to allocate their grades, with non-meaningful consequences, like a
class rank or a top to down scorer method or any other namesake methods, fastened to them,
students will keep on believing that the grades are the ultimate purpose of studying

Hence, it lies only in the hands of the school’s curriculum management division to consider all
these aspects and make sure they devise a learning pattern that takes all these factors into account
and does the needful for the student community.

If we start implementing these issues right from today, we can see a wholesome and fully
knowledgeable student community within a few years and after which there will only be a
competition for soft skills and intensity of knowledge and nothing else.