Academic achievement is important for the successful development of young people in society. Students who do well in school are better able to make the transition into adulthood and to achieve occupational and economic success.

Here are five reasons why grades matter

Good grades boost confidence:

A study at the University of Michigan found that 80% of students surveyed based their self-worth on academic performance more than cited family support as a source of self-esteem. A study at King's College showed adolescents with low self-esteem were more likely to have poor health, be involved in criminal behavior and earn less than their peers. Since it's overwhelmingly poor students who are drawn to bad grades, a self-reinforcing loop is created. Poverty leads to bad grades and low self-esteem, which leads to more poverty and social dysfunction.

Good grades open the door to college and university:

High School grades matter most if you have hopes of going to college. The grade point average is one factor that colleges may consider when they decide to accept or deny a student. If you want to go on a graduate or professional school or college grades are even more important. The competition among applicants for law school Medical School veterinary school graduate business school and most programs and graduate Arts and Sciences is formidable. Doing well in academics still prevails as a pre-requisite to get into any higher education of a student's choice.

Good grades can lead to more scholarships:

Getting accepted is one thing receiving a scholarship is another thing. Colleges also look at grades when they decide whether to award funding to students. Better grades, higher test scores and involvement in a variety of activities can help a student get more money for higher education. Getting grades can also be a factor for consideration into an honor Society in college. Students find that involvement in an honor society or another or other club also makes it eligible for funding for special funding and opens the door for incredible opportunities.

Employers care about grades:

Students shouldn't think that just because they've mounted the admissions hurdle, they can slack off in class. To be sure, many employers won't expect to see a GP(average marks) on a resume a but most large companies will. If a student comes to an employer with very solid grades, typically this translates into the individual being able to successfully tackle certain daily tasks with a quick turnaround coupled with less of a need for close supervision. After all, the student was able to do this successfully even while he was at school. Why couldn't he or she bring that work ethic to the company free of management to do its job and produce results with less training?

Good grades heavily influence lifetime earnings:

If your parents paid you for good grades when you were a child, you know, what good grades are worth. But it turns out people who make good grades in school tend to make more money in their careers. So even if you go no further than high school, you're financially better off for having made a's and b's says Greg Emmerich, the researcher who crunched the numbers. So, if you plan to go advanced studies, you can't afford to dismiss grades as unimportant, even if you have reservations about them, as many of us do.