A shift has taken place in the grading system at middle and high schools that will place a greater emphasis on a student’s individual performance.

The Education Ministry on Tuesday announced a set of measures to modernize the academic affairs management at middle and high schools, which includes the introduction of performance-based student assessment.

Currently students are graded based on a comparative assessment relative to their peers and categorized into nine different grade groups. This ranking system will be scrapped and students will scored in five levels from A to E under the new system.

The new system will be run on a trial basis from next year with the intent to implement it from the first semester of 2014.