I have a difficult question for every parent, teacher, and policymaker who claims to care about education:
If grades made learning better, wouldn’t our children love learning by now?
Because that’s not what I see.
I see students who once explored, questioned, built, created, experimented, and dreamed… slowly becoming young people who ask one heartbreaking question almost every day:
“Sir, will this be on the test?”
Something has gone terribly wrong.
🎓 Grades Were Supposed to Measure Learning.
Instead, They Became the Reason to Learn.
We built a system where children don’t read to understand — they read to survive exams.
Where they don’t pick subjects they love — they pick subjects that protect their GPA.
Where a teenager can spend 12 years in school and still believe their worth fits inside a percentage box.
We did that. Adults did that.
We created schools where learning is no longer a human experience — it’s a competitive sport.
And then we wonder why creativity is vanishing, cheating is rising, anxiety is exploding, and curiosity is dying.
🔍 What Grades Really Do (Research Has Been Warning Us)
Research shows that grades consistently produce three outcomes:
1️⃣ Students become less interested in learning.
2️⃣ Students avoid challenging tasks to protect their grade.
3️⃣ Students learn in a shallow, test-driven way instead of deeply understanding anything.
In other words:
Grades don’t create better learners.
They create safer, quieter, more obedient learners.
And obedience has never been the purpose of education.
👦 A Fictional Student, But a Very Real Story
Meet Aamir.
Aamir loved photography. He could spend hours capturing light and shadows on old city walls. But photography wasn’t a subject that boosted his GPA, so he never took the course.
He chose Chemistry, not because he dreamed of it, but because someone told him:
“Medical ka scope hai.”
He didn’t become a doctor.
He also didn’t become a photographer.
He became something worse:
A young adult who no longer remembers what he loves.
And Aamir is not alone. Millions of Aamirs walk out of our schools every year.
🧪 Grades Are Not Evidence of Mastery
A student can earn an A in English and still be unable to write a compelling email.
A student can pass math with a 95% and still be terrified of real-life finances.
A student can memorize 14 chapters for a biology exam and still not understand their own body.
So why are we pretending that grades represent competence?
They don’t.
🌱 There Is a Better Way: Competency-Based Learning
I am not arguing for chaos, or for schools without accountability. I am arguing for better accountability — the kind that actually reflects what a student can do.
Competency-based evaluation means:
✔ Students demonstrate real skills.
✔ Growth matters more than performance on a single day.
✔ Learning is personalized, not standardized.
✔ Students explore, create, design, build, and solve.
Imagine schools where:
🎨 A student of art graduates with a portfolio, not a grade.
💻 A student of computer science leaves with actual software they built.
📚 A student of literature publishes essays and stories, not MCQ answers.
🌍 A student of geography designs a sustainability project for their city.
That’s assessment.
That’s learning.
That’s education.
🛑 But Some Will Resist This Change
And they will say things like:
“Without grades, students won’t study.”
To which I respond:
If the only way to make a child learn is fear, then it is not learning. It is obedience.
We can do better than that.
💥 The Real Question Is Not “How do we fix grades?”
It is — Why are we still using them?
Grades were designed for a factory model of schooling in the 1800s.
We live in a world of AI, space exploration, digital economies, decentralized careers, and infinite access to knowledge…
But our children are still being evaluated like factory workers.
Isn’t it time we evolved?
🚀 A Call to Parents, Teachers, and Every Adult Who Says They Care
If you are a parent, ask your child tonight:
✨ “What did you learn today that changed the way you see the world?”
If you are a teacher, ask your students tomorrow:
✨ “What are you curious about and how can we explore it together?”
If you are a policymaker, ask your council:
✨ “Are we preparing children for the world that was, or the world that is coming?”
Because this is not just about school.
It is about childhood. About identity. About potential.
We can raise a generation that collects grades,
or a generation that creates solutions.
I know which future I want.
📢 If You Agree, Join the Movement.
Share this. Start conversations. Question the system.
Learning was never meant to be a race.
It was meant to be a journey.
Let’s give it back to our children.