Band 6+: There is a belief that young individuals must attend school full-time until they are at least 18 years old. To what degree do you support or oppose this idea? Explain your viewpoint with reasons and include appropriate examples based on your knowledge or experiences.

Individual people are believed to engage in full- time schooling until they are at least 18 years old. From my perspective, although this idea presents both a noticeable benefit and a potential drawback, related to the competitiveness in the educational environment, I totally advocate that its benefit outweigh its drawback.

With regard to the advantage, it is undeniable that full-time study programs provide students with a favorable condition to nurture their competitive instinct. As in such a curriculum there are a variety of awards for those having an excellent academic performance, pupils are motivated to attain these after their study efforts. For example, the Vietnamese educational system compels students to commit to full-time study at school until they are at least 18. They create many competitions such as national excellent students and Olympics, with appealing awards, thereby fostering students’ strive to outperform others to attain victories. In this way, not only do pupils have academic targets, but they also have reasons to try their best to enhance their understanding.

However, despite its advantages, it poses the challenge of a competitive environment in education such as mental and physical health risks. It is obvious that in such a competition, they have to allocate much time to improve themselves. In this case, students have to deeply invest in studying to enrich their knowledge as much as possible, resulting in burnout and stress. In addition to this, competing with others who have talent and previous awards before leads to peer pressure and over studying, which deteriorates their mental and physical well-being.

In conclusion, I wholeheartedly believe that participating in full-time educational programs which are compulsory for individuals until they at least reach the age of 18 offers a significant benefit surpassing a drawback. As learners have opportunities to experience a competitive environment, they will cultivate their personal competitive instinct and present a better academic performance progressively, in spite of facing challenges of health risks. Yet, to mitigate this disadvantage, they have to strike a balance between studying and relaxing.