Grades should be abolished

Grades in schools should be abolished. The impacts that grades to students gave been greatly overwhelming; causing more harm than good on the whole concept of education. Many schools use grades to determine the ability of a student. In fact, grades are so important in the education systems such that students now purely pursue the attainment of desirable grades at the expense of the knowledge taught in schools. The academic system of grades has reduced education to a system that provides no knowledge at all to the students. In fact, students often find themselves under pressure and anxiety whenever tests are mentioned due to the impacts poor grades can have on their life. Grades have become the reason for some teachers to misuse and instill fear on students whenever they teach certain concepts by telling students to grasp the concepts for the sake of tests. The pursuit of good grades completely erodes the joy of pursuing knowledge by students due to the uncertainty of testable areas. Based on the negative impacts the grading system brings to the learning process, it is imperative to abolish grades and device other ways of determining achievement in schools.

Grading system in schools has various impacts that researchers have identified as being central in eroding the importance of education system in imparting knowledge to students. Emphasis on grades in school has certain negative impacts to students (Kohn 1). To start with, researchers have found out that the interest towards learning among students is eroded due to the continued emphasis on grades. According to research done in motivational psychology, there is a tendency for people to lose interest on something that is rewarded continuously. As a matter of fact, when a certain concept is highly emphasized to students, there is a tendency for it to be viewed as a task. In deed, there is an inverse relationship between grades orientation with learning orientation. Therefore, if learning objectives of passing knowledge to students is to be achieved, other modes of assessing the learned skills need to be developed.

Researchers have also discovered that when grades are highly emphasized, there is a tendency for students to dread challenging and difficult concepts. In fact, it has been established through research that most students who have gone through an education system that emphasizes on grades will opt for simpler tasks as opposed to challenging situations. In fact, the pressure towards getting the excellent grades makes students to have less inclination towards challenging themselves in a true way. There is a tendency for some students to engage in bad practices such as cheating so as to attain grades that are acceptable (Kohn 1). In fact, most of the students found themselves using unscrupulous ways to attain good grades as opposed to the attainment of intellectual fulfillment.

Research has also shown grades have the effect of reducing the level of thinking among students. In fact, researchers argue that when students are involved in education systems that emphasis on grades, their quality of thinking is greatly compromised. Additionally, it has been established through research that students tend to often think less whenever they undergo through an education system that emphasizes on grades (Kohn 1). In particular, when numerical grades are given to students, the level of creativity is eroded to a great extent. As a matter of fact, activities that require a high level of creativity tend to be viewed as being highly challenging to the students exposed to an education system that emphasizes on grades. In other cases, students have failed to grasp simple concepts in class when they know that the concepts will be tested. From the foregoing, grades really have very negative implications on students. Based on the negative impacts of grades on education, other methods of assessment should be developed to ensure that the goal of knowledge acquisition is attained through education system.