Grades are not a measure of success in life 

It is that time of the year again when KCSE exam results are announced to anxious students and even more anxious parents.

It is always wonderful to see excited teachers and parents hoist the top student on their shoulders jubilating a great performance. Who can blame them, we live in a country obsessed with the elusive ‘A’ grade and the famous ‘400 marks’.

Even as the ‘A’ crowd celebrates, there is a silent majority of the ‘below C+’ group who are left feeling lesser than those who brought home a ‘good grade’.

Out of the 747,161 students who sat the 2020 KCSE exam, only 143,000 students scored a C+ and above. This means that over 600,000 students, that is 80 per cent of the students who sat last year’s exam, would be – to put it in vernacular – considered ‘failures’ by a culture and system that prizes high grades above all else.

I don’t know the origin of this notion that a C+ and above is the foundation for a successful life. 

Academically gifted

It is damaging hundreds of thousands of young Kenyans who, despite their best efforts, are still not considered worthy because they did not score a C+ and above.

It is good to recognise the students who do well in school. As a recipient of many prizes and badges inscribed ‘Best in English” in school I understand first-hand the sheer fulfilment of being recognised for emerging top.

But I think sometimes we take it a little too far and we focus on the wrong things. While we should and must recognise students who emerge top, we must actively think about the other students, some of whom that D is the best they could earn, considering their gifts, circumstances and resources. 

Let us not forget that during the disruption last year, not all children could access virtual learning platforms.

Not every student is academically gifted, and a “D” should never be considered as a statement of a student’s intelligence. 

‘Successful student’

What we should focus on, instead, is the kind of individuals these students become after the four years in high school. What values did they pick up along the way? Did they become more compassionate and empathetic individuals? Did they discover their talents and gifts along the way? Did they sharpen their leadership skills?

I just think we need to re-engineer what we consider to be a ‘successful student’. It’s wonderful that the A students will study medicine and become great doctors who will save lives someday. But we also need to think of the D and E students, who are gifted in other areas – say entrepreneurship – and will go on to become employers for the next generation.

Most importantly, let us disabuse ourselves of this culture where we use an individual’s ‘D’ grade against them in the future. Statements like ‘Oh, she/he cannot do the job because she/he is a D student’ need to be done away with.

Before then, we need to completely ban my least favorite statement, ‘She/he is a ‘D’ material”.

Dr Chege is the Director, Innovation Centre at Aga Khan University; [email protected]