> Our schooling and educational systems are very merit based.
I'm not sure where' you're based, but that's certainly not the case where I live. I once worked for a company that made grading software. I quit after 3 months because they wanted to implement features like, "Teacher wants to be able to change grade to a specific letter, even if student's scores add up to a different letter grade." (In other words, even though this student received an "A" based on test scores, I want them to have a "C" instead. Or vice-versa.)
I took Calculus AB in high school and the teacher was notorious for giving students D's and F's because of his teaching style was poor and the exams were difficult. The only saving grace from that class was that you would be given a C if you scored a 4+ on the AP exam.
He still kept his job because majority of the class got 4+'s on those exams, despite at least 1/3 of his class getting D's and F's.
I wouldn't generalize editing letter grades as a way of "cheating the system". There's usually good intentions in every act.
In general a student should be able to calculate his own grade given available information so that acts as a buffer to this sort of "grade editing." In general teachers won't do this due the fact that it can easily be found out.
I'm not sure where' you're based, but that's certainly not the case where I live. I once worked for a company that made grading software. I quit after 3 months because they wanted to implement features like, "Teacher wants to be able to change grade to a specific letter, even if student's scores add up to a different letter grade." (In other words, even though this student received an "A" based on test scores, I want them to have a "C" instead. Or vice-versa.)