Numbers don’t lie. It’s a saying that I myself believe. We all know that there is even a science for it. Statistics. But as data are collected and patterns showing generic habits, the detail in every data are sometimes misleading.

Excellence in education today are shown in grades in report cards every period; a semester, a quarter in an academic calendar. These grades show how well a student performed during that period. But does that really matter in real world situations? Perhaps. When we look at a student’s report card showing he/she has high grades, we often judge that student to be excellent, or exceptional.  But in some cases, those numbers lie. They do.

I graduated Elementary, High School and College and got grades that sometimes makes me wonder if I really did perform the way those grades show. That my education or the way that I learned are connected with those report cards that I have received, wondering if all of those numbers really reflects what I have learned.

There are so many factors that affect a student’s performance on a grading period. Some of which are factors in which the four corners of a classroom cannot tell or even measure. So basically these affects directly and indirectly the intellectual performance of a student, thus the grade that was given may or may not be the real capacity or performance of a student. The basis for which each grading system is formulated most of the times disregard those factors specially if the exams, quizzes and activities do not reflect such actual performance. Another thing is that the teacher factor. Including relationships on and off the four corners of the room. Education is sometimes measured on the student and not the capacity of the teacher to properly transmit his knowledge of the subject.

To sum it all, Grades are just numbers. We may be given a low grade for what they think that we performed poorly or we may be given a high grade in what we think that we performed mediocrely. What’s important is that we do not dwell with these numbers that only tell us about a certain semester or academic year in our life. Education is not about having high grades for eight semesters, or one academic year but is a continuous process wherein many outside and inside factors can affect learning. So, numbers do lie sometimes. 

By: Rysy May G. Constantino | T-II | Limay National High School