Educators are not happy that this newspaper described the disagreement over what constitutes a passing grade in GCSE exams as a “row”. So be it. The fact is that this is a deadly serious issue which needs to be settled.Quite simply, you cannot have two passing grades for one exam. Telling people they have passed the exam when no one in the world recognises the grade as a pass is disingenuous and only sets them up for failure.Saying that Bermudian students are doing well in English because 95 percent passed by getting a grade of G or better is simply disingenuous when the rest of the world sees anything below “C” as a failure. And it’s not much of a measure to say you have passed an exam when anywhere between 98 and 100 percent of your fellow exam takers do as well. What exactly is being measured?In fact, 62 percent of Bermuda public school students received a C grade. That is not bad, especially since this was the first year all public school students were required to take IGCSE exams in Maths and English. However, it still lags behind the international average of 82.7 percent.In Maths there is reason to celebrate as 70 percent of students passed with a C or better; the worldwide average for the exam is 75.6 percent, that is welcome news and shows that something is going right with the teaching of maths. Clearly, as Education Minister Dame Jennifer Smith said, there is more work to be done. Performing below the average is not good enough.In other subjects, the GCSE exams are a mixed bag. In foreign languages, 88 percent of the volunteer exam takers passed with a C or above. But in the sciences, just 20 percent did. Over time, the results need to improve and it is likely that they will.And the number of subjects being taken needs to be expanded as well. To move on to any further education, GCSE passes with a grade of C or above is usually needed.But before that happens, Government needs to make it clear that a C is a passing grade in Bermuda, and that’s it. Otherwise, there is little point in going through the exercise of getting an internationally recognised curriculum.