If school were to be life, teachers would hold the keys to people’s destinies. Students who pass examinations with excellent grades are usually celebrated by their teachers and the society, understandably so. We can argue it but it takes extra efforts for teachers and even parents to warm up to students or children who struggle to score good grades in their academics.
You may agree and you may not, but many students who are classified as average in school are more than average human beings in real life situations. The difference may be in their modes of learning. There are many reasons students don’t get good grades in examinations. Real life has shown that examination is not a perfect test of intelligence.
Different people have different approaches to learning just as different people have different reasons for studying. Some students study to pass examination while some study to learn. The latter category may not score excellent grades but they are no less better than the former. Many atime, the latter are better than the former in real life situations.
I wrote an article in 2021, titled “Certificate my foot”. I attached the link here for reference purpose – https://www.akinjnr.com/certificate-my-foot/ – The world is changing. In fact, the world has changed. Emphasis has shifted from what you scored to what you learned. The world out there is more interested in what you can do than what you know.
Knowledge, they say, is power but until you apply the knowledge you acquired and see it work for you, you may not be as powerful as you think. Education gives knowledge. That alone is strength but knowledge alone does not create wealth. It is the application of knowledge that creates wealth in all facets of life.
To score excellent grades in examinations is the beginning of exploits but it is no longer enough. Those who scored good grades alone have had their reign. The universe has compensated them well enough by guaranteed employment and patronage but competition in the market space has eroded that privilege. Now, only the paranoids survive.
The world stage has turned to a big marketplace. Yes, marketplace of self, marketplace of ideas and marketplace of products. If you find it easy to pass exams, you have an edge in the short run. The real test of life is when you are able to exhibit what you learned to solve problems above what you scored in examinations.
Even in the corporate world, the brainy ones have more to prove compared to the supposed average employees who are innovative and informed enough to create quick solutions out of knotty issues in a dynamic business environment. Remove sentiments, if your knowledge does not translate to figures, your continued relevance is only a matter of time because the bills have to be paid.
The world is in dire need of transformative thinkers who can create something out of nothing. The society is no longer patient with stereotypes. Beyond the certificates, ‘what can you do?’ is the new kid on the block. It stems more from what you have learned than what you scored. A society is as rich as the depth of diverse ideas. The job of an intellectual is to provoke conversations.
It’s my Monday musing. Let’s engage.
©️ Akin Oluwadare Jnr
15 September 2025.
