You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Many people believe that education standards have declined in recent times, particularly in the areas of literacy and numeracy. Discuss the causes of this problem and offer some possible solutions to it.
Give reasons for your answer.
You should write at least 250 words.
Sample Answer 1:
It is widely acknowledged that standards in reading and math have declined in numerous countries for the past few decades. The purpose of this essay is to explore the possible causes and to formulate suitable approaches to tackle this critical situation.
Literacy is the ability to speak, write, read and listen in a way that allows people to communicate effectively and to make sense of the world around us; while numeracy is being capable of thinking logically, reasonably and able to use mathematics to meet the demands of everyday life. It is somewhat interesting that academic standards began to diminish around the time of the technology boom, with increasingly more automatized machines and gadgets to make life “easier”. Perhaps it got a little bit too easy. Instant messaging allows quick communication and is relatively easy to use; however, it also prompted the usage of chatting acronyms. On efficacious solution to this problem is encouraging students to read a variety of text from various sources-newspapers, magazines, novels, recipes etc…, instead of only from the internet, this will boost their spelling and reading abilities.
Another factor is simply that the education system has been modified for the purpose of generating more “rounded” students; therefore, music, arts, and gym are equally essential as reading and Math. Despite the good intentions, in order to make room for other subjects, literacy and mathematics hours and standards have been reduced. An effective approach is to adapt school curricula from other countries that have higher literacy and numeracy levels into our local study programs.
To conclude, literacy and numeracy skills are intertwined with our daily lives, therefore it is of the utmost importance to maintain a certain level of standards.
(by – Kelly Ke)
Sample Answer 2:
It would be quite right to profess that the declination of educational quality, particularly in literature and mathematics, has globally grabbed attention among the populace over the last decades. This essay will connote the excessive use of state-of-the-art technological devices by juveniles and lack of good teachers as main causes and submit legislating stricter rules for exploiting accurately modern facilities at schools and encouraging talented people to come in the teaching profession as solutions to draw a reasonable conclusion.
According to a common perception among many, one of the fundamental reasons behind decreasing the level of standards concerning education lies in the fact that the young are used to utilise new electronic devices to carry out their assignments. As a case in point, one nephew of mine is accustomed to using his smart mobile phone not only for straightening out all the mathematical tests but for accounting simplest math questions like multiplying two one-digit numbers. That being so, it is more likely that in no so long distant future, he would not be able to achieve abilities of problem-solving in the real world being needed in the job market. Besides, students are too busy to play video games or surfing internet that they do not feel interested to read books outside their academic syllabus. Thus their reading habit is a daunting issue these days. Again, the lack of quality teachers who can inspire students is another reason for this decreasing educational standard. Most teachers these days are after money and fame rather than enlighting new generations.
It is obvious that it would not be possible to deal with such cataclysm by a single solution. Some, however, claim that by setting regulation concerning limited usage of technologic devices, particularly at educational centres could pave the road for improving training frameworks. To illustrate, in some European nations, some tough laws have been adopted by the higher ranking authorities in terms of forbidding the use of any kind of electronic facilities in classrooms, especially during the exams among pupils in elementary schools. They have correspondingly realised that the rate of students’ abilities for solving complicated issues gradually increased after a few months. Moreover, more literary works should be added in the syllabus to let students learn their own culture and custom through the reading of that literature. Finally, more facilities should be added for the teacher so that people do not come to teaching profession only because they did not find anything better. In many countries, very few talented people come to the teaching profession in junior level only because the government has not allocated enough facilities for those teachers.
By way of conclusion, being one of the practical and effective methods of overcoming the dilemma of a low quality of education standards ranging from literature to mathematics, legislating stricter rules for youngsters not exploiting modern facilities at school and attracting more quality teachers could be considered as two effective solutions to cope with somewhat this negative trend.
(by – Behzad Alibabaei)