Grades must not become more important than subjects
Published: 18 May 12:28 2022 – Last updated 18 May 12:41 2022
This is a leader. The editorial expresses Studvest’s position as a party-politically independent newspaper for and by students affiliated with the higher education institutions in Bergen.
I February determined government to cancel spring exams for high school students. Again. In recent years, the initiative has led to record high grade points in study admissions to higher education, and the «corona charcoal» got a little extra in the luggage for the next application.
Coming soon the grade statistics for this year’s graduating students in upper secondary school. Probably with numbers at the record high end of the scale.
But the question is whether the record-breaking grade point average is given for the competence and focus on the students’ further educational life. Is it still the increasing grade point average and a sign that we are on the way to getting a wrong focus when it comes to learning and exam motivation?
In colleges and universities describes multiple and high grade pressure. This spring, Universitas was able to tell about law students who feel the pressure through the course of study from both fellow students and working life. The increase in the grade point average will undoubtedly contribute to more.
The character pressure reflects also among the privateers. Last summer, close to 50,000 students took private exams in the hope of a better grade. This is an increase of 8000 from last year. In higher education, one sees the same trends. Here, several take up subjects to improve their grades.
In Denmark has one began to look more closely at ending the “character race”. A reform commission, appointed by the government, proposes that the high grade requirements and higher education be abolished through a maximum limit of the grade point average of nine, corresponding to just under five in the Norwegian grade system.
ISLANDg if it is the case that there are more applicants than there are places, one must find another way to determine the admission, it says in the commission’s proposal.
The Commission’s has a point. Educations are there to learn and build up a solid competence in students. Not that they should come out on the other side with diplomas in glass and frame.
Grading systems can be fine to create a motivation in the students so that they can perform their best and give a clear assessment of how it is with the competence. But grades must not become more important than subjects. This is exactly what the Danish Reform Commission believes is the case right now.
The debate about grades is often about higher education. Men it’s I like very much about higher education. Do we teach students in high schools that grades are more important than subjects where they learn further in the higher education system. That’s wrong.
Maybe Norway should do as Denmark and take a debate on the grade requirements and ensure that subjects remain more important than grades.
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