The New Race for Marks: Will A++ Chain Our Youth to More Rote Learning?

FBISE has just brought in a new grading system. Now students who score 96 to 100 percent get an A++, called "Extraordinary," while those who score 91 to 95 percent get an A+, called "Exceptional."

It looks like a small change. But it raises a big question: what are we really teaching our children to chase? A grading scale is not just a number system. It quietly tells kids what we value. And this one tells them that the gap between 95 and 96 percent is worth a whole new prize.

Where does A++ even come from?

Here is a simple fact: no major exam system in the world has an A++. In the Cambridge system, IGCSE and A Level stop at A*, and O Level goes no higher than A. England changed its GCSE grades in 2017 to a simple 1-to-9 scale to move away from a longer and longer list of top grades. The International Baccalaureate marks each subject from 1 to 7. In the American system, the highest you can get is A or, at most, A+.

So the world's best-known boards are making their grades simpler, not adding new ones on top. Pakistan has gone the other way. We have created a grade that no one else uses, and placed it right where the pressure on students is already highest. If everyone else is walking one way, we should at least be able to explain why we are walking the other. So far, no one has.

Just ask: why?

Think about what a child hears when we put a new wall between 95 and 96 percent. She hears that A+ — which meant "excellent" only yesterday — is suddenly not good enough. The finish line has moved again. And the child who was already stressed is now stretched a little tighter.

Here is the strange part. When FBISE first replaced marks with letter grades, it said the whole point was to end the race for marks. Now the same board has added one more step to that very race. A++ does not end the race. It just makes the track longer.

Our real problem is that we let one number stand for a whole child. Worried about jobs — and every parent worries — we give our children one rule far too early: good marks, or no good future. Schools and academies, judged by the toppers in their ads, repeat the same message. Places that should build character slowly turn into places of stress.

The world is asking a different question now

All of this might make sense if the world still hired and promoted people mainly on marks. It doesn't — and the people saying so are the ones doing the hiring.

Elon Musk, who hires for Tesla and SpaceX, has said a PhD is definitely not required. He says he doesn't even care whether someone finished high school; what matters is real ability. His one question about any candidate is simple: what has this person actually done that shows exceptional skill?

Tim Cook of Apple says the company hires people with degrees and without them, and the one thing he won't compromise on is the ability to work well with others. Both Apple and Google have dropped the college degree as a requirement for many jobs.

This isn't just the opinion of two famous bosses. The World Economic Forum says the future of work will depend on skills, not degrees. Its 2025 jobs report estimates that about 39 percent of the skills a job needs will change by 2030, and that things like creative thinking, adaptability, and curiosity are becoming more important every year. Experts even talk about the "shelf life" of a skill — around five years before it goes out of date.

And above all this is AI. Artificial intelligence has done something quietly huge to our exams: it has made memorizing facts almost useless. Everything our children spend years cramming is now available to anyone in seconds. A system that rewards memory is preparing students for a contest the machines have already won. What matters now is what machines can't do: thinking, creativity, character, and the courage to ask why.

Put the two pictures side by side. The world is making grades simpler, dropping degree requirements, and investing in skills. We are busy splitting our top grade in two. We are perfecting our answer to a question the world has stopped asking.

What parents and teachers can do now

Changing a board takes time. Changing our homes and classrooms can start today. The first thing we owe our children is the courage to ask questions — to ask "why?" about a lesson, a rule, even a grading notice. The child who questions becomes tomorrow's leader. The child who only memorizes becomes tomorrow's bystander.

So stop weighing your child only on marks, and stop comparing him to someone else's success story. Free him from the number game and give him real independence — let him plan his own future, with your guidance but not your script. Take away the fear that life is impossible without a job, and teach him instead how to stand on his own feet.

Teach him what the world actually wants: clear communication, the ability to work in a team, a strong sense of honour and self-respect, physical fitness, and above all, confidence in God and in himself. Fill his time with societies, reading, skills, and activities that build a person, not just a percentage. Tell the schools: sixty percent is fine — just make our child strong.

The day our children are judged on who they are rather than the length of their mark sheets, this generation will stop standing in job queues and start leading. And that day will come only when our institutions stop building show-pieces like A++ — ladders that lead nowhere — and get back to the real job of education: raising the kind of people the future actually needs.