Skills vs. the stamp
Interacting with current students in the university where I teach I find that getting a decent employment offer is one of the chief concerns on students' minds. It is well known that in our country selection processes ( particularly for jobs ) are actually rejection processes -- emphasis is on "filtering-out" the candidates so as to bring the numbers to a reasonable size which can be further evaluated and interviewed. Recruiters start by using proxy parameters to judge the skills. Most favorite first filtering criteria is overall grade that a student/candidate has secured in academics. It is assumed that a higher grade means higher competency in skills. In practice I have seen that this is often not the case. I have met students who are not top graders, but have much better mastery of the subject and skills of a trade. Particularly for students, I think the rot starts right with this belief that grades matter more than the skills and learning. The environment, unfortuna