The other day, Sanjeev Bikchandani, a successful serial entrepreneur and a co-founder of Ashoka University posted:
In the post, he analysed the career trajectory of the top 50 students of the batch of 200 students who took the Class 10 Board exams from St. Columba’s School in 1978, and used the fact that most of them would be considered “successful” to conclude that “grades matter”.
He says, “Eleven studied Economics at St. Stephens. Thirteen went to IIT. Seven went to IIM Ahmedabad. Another six went to other business schools including Harvard, Wharton, Kellogg and Carnegie Mellon. I see that almost all the others went to other excellent colleges – SRCC, AIIMS, MAMC, BITS and others.” While everybody will agree with him when he says, “almost all of these fifty have had stellar careers in their chosen field”, one cannot conclude, as he does, that “all of them got to where they did by dint of their effort and their academic accomplishments.”
St. Columba’s was one of the most elite schools in the country in the 1970s. While the students may not have been the children of millionaires or of royalty, they were certainly from families that male up the intellectual elite. Their parents were IAS and IPS officers, senior officers in the Armed Forces, pilots, lawyers, doctors and other educated professionals. While these families liked to think of themselves as “upper middle class” (and not “rich”), they were the people who ran the nation.
The students of St. Columba’s were at the apex of an inequitable pyramid, and every advantage was stacked in their favour. They grew up in families that prioritised education. They had the best teachers. If they struggled with a subject, they could get tutors to provide one on one coaching. They could access to books and libraries.
When they graduated, they had ready-made professional networks which they could tap into to get good jobs. They were fluent in English, which in itself guarantees a large measure of success. They had financial and emotional safety nets which enabled them to take calculated risks. While one does not discount the good grades that the students got, the odds are stacked so much in their favour that it would be hard for any student from St. Columba’s to fail spectacularly in their professional life.
Statistics only make sense when compared with other data sets
Statistics should never be viewed in isolation. In order to draw any conclusions on whether or not grades matter, either of two comparisons should have been made.
The top 50 in a batch of 200 represents the top quartile of students graduating from St. Columba’s in 1978. Comparing the career trajectory of the top 50 students with the career trajectory of the students with ranks 101 to 150, would have given an indication of whether “good grades” led to a significantly better professional career or not. If ‘only’ grades matter, most of the students in the third quartile should (at best) be working in low paying jobs which barely qualify as white collar. Though we do not have any details of what these people are doing, given the family background of the students and the fact that they are fluent in English, it is unlikely that any of them are in similar jobs (unless it is out of choice).
The other comparison could have been with the career trajectory of the toppers from 50 government schools in Delhi in 1978. If ‘only’ grades matter, the 50 toppers from government schools should have enjoyed much greater professional success than the students from the top quartile of one particular school. After all, each of them is the best in their school, not just one of the top 50! Again, we do not have details, but it is safe to assume that most of the toppers from government schools would not have enjoyed even a fraction of the professional success that the students of St. Columba’s did.
Even talking about these comparisons would seem ludicrous. How can anyone even think of comparting students from a elite English medium school with the students of a government school? Yet, when we talk about how “grades matter” and we say “good grades open doors. The effort you put in to achieve these grades adds intrinsic value to you”, aren’t we presupposing that the only thing that differentiates one who does well professionally from one who doesn’t is the amount of effort put into getting good grades”?
Though we believe otherwise, there is more at play than just ‘hard work’
When I was younger, I too believed that it was my hard work that got me where I was. But I was comparing myself to others with the same advantages as I had. Yes, I certainly had good brains, and I worked extremely hard, but it wasn’t just “my” brains and “my” hard work that got me where I was. I had privilege that I chose to be blind to, because I was comparing myself to others like me.
However behind my professional success was the fact that I had access to the best education my parents could afford- yes, they made personal sacrifices to pay for my education, but that they valued the education enough for them to do so itself is a privilege. Nobody questioned me when I aspired to occupy a place of excellence. My family supported me and my ambitions at every stage, and without that support, I doubt if I would have achieved what I did.
Though I chose not to think about it, I was born and brought up at the apex of an inequitable system. A system that empowered and enabled me to compete on what I thought was a level field, but actually was one that was stacked in my favour. There are many who are as intelligent as me. And are willing to work as hard as I did. But at every stage they are denied opportunity.
The vast majority of students in India, struggle to find teaches able and willing to teach. They do not have access to libraries. They do not have a family that can sustain their curiosity. They are constantly derided by the education system. Even after they get admission into good educational institutions, they are often not accepted as equals by the faculty and other students. Their competence is questioned, even though there is no reason to presume they are in any way not equal to the rest.
When they are ready to graduate, recruiters look at fluency in English as much (if not more) than they do at grades. Personal and professional networks play a key role in career progression. Not everyone has the financial and emotional safety net to take professional risks. In short, the field is stacked against the vast majority of people in the country.
Till those inequities are removed, the elite should not make blanket statements like-
“However you will need to be patient and toil diligently and consistently for a longish period of time for the payoff’s to come. You will need to attend every class, read every reading, prepare for every exam and work hard on every assignment. You will need to focus and be committed.”
While there is nothing wrong with the statement, what we should be more worried about is trying to ensure universal access to quality education, healthcare, livelihoods and social acceptance. Yes, good grades open doors, but they do so only for the elite. To not recognise your own privilege is to choose to moral blindness.