The current perception of the significance of grades in university circles is dumbfounding. In fact, most students are missing the whole point of education because today, the only language they understand is that of marks (amanota).

Lest you miss my point, I don’t intend to demean grades; I think the years spent at school should be worth more than just grades. Shockingly, learning is inconsequential to most learners as long as there is a good grade in the end. At this rate, what quality of labour should we project for the future?

Even worse is their new — found — right to claim unwarranted grades. For some unexplained reasons, absentees usually grumble when they score low marks. They can stick on you like glue and beg as though their life depends on it — even on a number that is obviously wrong. Let’s face it, if you took an astronomy course, would you want partial credit because even though you identified a star as a planet, you at least recognized they both are in the sky? The point here is not that lecturers are flawless, but that a change is only necessary when it is legit.

A student can turn in an English assignment riddled with grammatical errors, spelling mistakes and formatting inconsistencies; a paper which doesn’t even respond to the prompts for the assignment at all. With this, he/she earns a grade reflective of the fact that what is handed in is a mash-up of poorly constructed sentences and last minute work. As though this is not insulting enough, such students will play on the sympathies of professors to earn higher grades.

There is a misguided perception that college education is a prerequisite for a "good job” out in "the real world” (both terms I consider absurd). With this understanding of the importance of college, many students get wrapped up in their grades, often taking them as value statements on their own self-worth. It’s really easy to get trapped in the cycle of getting good grades to get a good job; to make a lot of money; to pay for a house; to support a family; to send your own kids to college. When this happens, grades become the foundation for an entire future — and perhaps even the foundation of your child’s future.

Education should be valued for more than just its spot on the résumé. It is about better knowing yourself, better knowing the world around you, and attempting to figure out your place in the world. Understanding reality and your role in it ("Knowing thyself,” as the ancient Greeks said), is infinitely more valuable than any material consequences of a degree. Education is about self-improvement, not about the number of zeroes at the end of a pay cheque.

It is your resilience in conquering the main event — adversity — that truly prepares you for life after school. Mark my words, school is not the most challenging time you will have in life. You will face far greater challenges than these. Guaranteed, you will have times more amazing than you can imagine, but you will also confront incomparable tragedy, frustration, and fear in the years to come. How will you overcome if all you want is ‘amanota’?

With this in mind, grades lose their novelty. By valuing education for its personal return instead of its financial return, grades become less of a statement on the future and more of a (mostly) inconsequential part of knowing thyself. None of this is to say that it isn’t important to work hard in school, which will often produce good grades, as working hard is part of improving yourself. What this means is that there is no need to get in a fit of pique about a disappointing grade here or there: it isn’t a comment on self-value, and it isn’t a comment on projected success out in "the real world” (as opposed to this world, the fake one I guess).

The writer is a lecturer at The Adventist University of Central Africa