Controverdial Issues of Grading Systems

In the field of education and teaching circles there has been an ongoing debate on whether marks truly reflect student’s abilities. The grade system and testing techniques have been under fire for not being suitable to all types of learners and sometimes even harming the overall results of education and person’s self-esteem. There is no wide-spread alternative to the marks system, but the questions are still there. For instance, for people with dyslexia getting a test done on time and without any typos is quite a difficult task, if not impossible. And the list goes on and on, to the point when the discussion becomes an international issues that touches upon the variety of issues. So let’s see the core of this debate and what are the alternative ways to evaluate student’s academic achievements.

It is sufficient to say that almost every country has a grading system and some kind of public examinations to determine future college prospects of students. More and more specialists speak out against such system as it is not able to fulfill its purpose of presumably evaluating who is the smarter and more capable one. As a Telegraph article title says “Intelligence cannot be defined by exams” and this is a widely popular opinion. The argument is that those type of tests promote narrow-mindedness and quick thinking, and completely excludes the aspect of subjective conclusions and creativeness. So basically it excludes all the artistic people with unconventional ways of comprehension.

The problem with current grading systems is that they follow the same pattern and do not include numerous factors that affect overall academical performance and the number of personal qualities that otherwise deemed productive and positive. A simple mark cannot measure the level of intelligence of a student, but it can certainly discourage him or her from putting too many efforts into further studies. The process of learning also worth mentioning here. If one is too bored with the constant thread of similar assignments, it is high time to turn to UK EduBirdie and get it over with. But the issue with traditional education and evaluation structure that it does not keep up with the technologies advancement and often is way too stiff and monotonous. Also education establishment fighting this issue, the question on how to evaluate students still stands. And as usual, there is no easy answer. Educators all over the world have spoken in favor of the continuous evaluations rather then an end exam. And this process suppose to include other factors like overall activity in the class, creativity during presentations and other events, comprehension of a subject overall, etc.

So on the path of creating a perfect ranking system in the digital age, there is still a lot of work to do, but we are surely heading in the right direction.