Band 6+: Many people believe that schools should focus more on preparing students for the job market, while others argue that schools should teach subjects that have no direct connection to future careers. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

Opinion is divided on whether schools should focus on preparing learners for future employment or whether they have to develop students into well-rounded individuals. While developing students as universal people has its merits, I find that schools need to prepare learners for future career paths more persuasively, chiefly because the main purpose of schools is to build a strong academic foundation.

Supporters of enhancing students’ all-rounding have a point when they argue that it is extremely beneficial to every individual to be resourceful in any case. The logic is straightforward: when people have superb adaptable skills, they can solve complex problems, which in turn would help them in life. Take the recent scientific research, where well-adaptable people had more successful relationships with those around them. What makes this so appealing is that being all-rounded would boost individuals’ creativity and critical thinking. That said, this advantage has its limits, since school-goers have to prepare for future employment.

My own sympathies, however, lie with training school-goers for joining the workforce, since they will need to make revenue. Given the fact that joining the workforce requires academic knowledge, acquiring it in schools enables students to work, thereby giving them an opportunity to make revenue. Working in huge companies illustrates this well: their employees earn a high salary. Were improving students’ resourcefulness to become the norm, level of unemployment in countries would almost certainly follow. Whereas developing individuals’ well-roundedness may deliver enhancing critical thinking, yet only equipping learners with strong academic knowledge can boost their financial conditions.

On balance, although providing excellent adaptable opportunities has a role to play, preparing students for future employment is the more convincing option, mainly because it would help them make a lot of revenue. For this reason, schools would do well to continue providing academic foundation, rather than enhancing learners’ well-roundedness.