Education and learning is important no matter who you are and it is the backbone of everything. If we don’t learn about ourselves, our lives and the lives of those around us, then how can we ever learn important life skills. In recent years schools have been put under a lot of pressure to reach targets for education and this has come under fire from both teachers and parents. It appears that rather than developing learning and life skills that will help them grow into adults, schools are teaching children how to pass exams.
There is no shame in teaching kids to pass exams as long as the children are learning about the subject as well but while many students may know the correct answer, is there any point if they can’t understand it? The real concern however is coming from employers who have said that the undergraduate students that they are receiving straight out of University can’t cope with the working environment and basic concepts like their life skills aren’t developed enough. The concern with this is that employers are limiting the number of inexperienced candidates in favour of those with experience as these candidates are usually good all rounders and won’t need additional training like presentation skills training.
Another problem with examination based teaching is that pupils who have had to move schools a number of times often get left behind as a result. This trend occurs a lot in children who have a military background as their parents are often sent to different military bases at both home and abroad. If you trace the military genealogy of families that have a history of service in the military, you will often see that the educational performance of the individual family members is usually poor unless they have spent their exam years at one school.
If you have a learning disability such as dyslexia and go to a specialist independent school then you might have an advantage over other school children. This sounds strange but this is because independent schools control their own syllabus and teach different aspects of subjects. This also means that student’s individual learning methods can be catered for so children with dyslexia can be taught in a way that suits the individual rather than the majority. This type of teaching can usually only be found in dyslexic schools but it allows dyslexic kids to learn and understand more.
