Many people believe that educational 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.
There is no doubt that the declining in educational standards has been one of hottest social issues in the recent times. In the following essay, I aim to identify the sources of this problem as well as some viable solutions to it.
From my perspective, chief among the causes of this problem is the enterprising approach to education. This is originated from the fact that the education industry has been contributing huge profits in many parts of the world. One particularly good example for this is Australia where international education is the third largest export industry, generating approximately AUD 20 billion annually. Yet, this approach is not only beneficial it also brings with it variety of negative effects. To begin with, as a direct result of running after profits, more and more new universities are opened without controlled quality and depend heavily on tuition for survival and growth . Students have become the source of revenue therefore to keep retention rate, tests are adjusted downwards to remain acceptable pass rate, teachers are lowering standards, bending deadlines and using upcoming exam questions as study guides. Another important reason to blame is on students who increasingly feel that the goal of higher education can be reduced to passing grades and an eventual diploma (which they feel is the key to a desirable job). Obviously, the more students with these poor motivations, the more employers no longer trust university education or in other words, a college diploma.
In order to resolve this deterioration effect, I believe we must address its root causes. Perhaps the most effective method of doing this would be for governments to provide financial aids to the universities with emphasis on quality rather than quantity of their students. Without feeling the pressures to retain or enroll students, I believe those universities can easily turn away many disqualified applicants every year and maintain their high educational standards. Admittedly, such financial aids would be a massive burden every government if there are too many universities, therefore, government must have effective policies close controlling and strict regulations on applications to establish a university or an education institute. One good example for this is my government's policy on university education. This, indeed, derives from the high demand of engineers, teachers, doctors, etc for my country. However, instead of focusing on quality of graduate students, our governments went soft on policies and allowed more universities to open and enroll students. As a result, after few years, although the number of fresh graduate student is increasing rapidly, only few of them qualify employers' standards. Maintaining the high standard educational environment, hence, should always be a vital mission for a government.
In conclusion, I believe that this is clearly a problem of such complexity that no solution is likely in the short term. However, I believe that the measures outlined above would constitute good first steps.
Discuss the causes of this problem and offer some possible solutions to it.
There is no doubt that the declining in educational standards has been one of hottest social issues in the recent times. In the following essay, I aim to identify the sources of this problem as well as some viable solutions to it.
From my perspective, chief among the causes of this problem is the enterprising approach to education. This is originated from the fact that the education industry has been contributing huge profits in many parts of the world. One particularly good example for this is Australia where international education is the third largest export industry, generating approximately AUD 20 billion annually. Yet, this approach is not only beneficial it also brings with it variety of negative effects. To begin with, as a direct result of running after profits, more and more new universities are opened without controlled quality and depend heavily on tuition for survival and growth . Students have become the source of revenue therefore to keep retention rate, tests are adjusted downwards to remain acceptable pass rate, teachers are lowering standards, bending deadlines and using upcoming exam questions as study guides. Another important reason to blame is on students who increasingly feel that the goal of higher education can be reduced to passing grades and an eventual diploma (which they feel is the key to a desirable job). Obviously, the more students with these poor motivations, the more employers no longer trust university education or in other words, a college diploma.
In order to resolve this deterioration effect, I believe we must address its root causes. Perhaps the most effective method of doing this would be for governments to provide financial aids to the universities with emphasis on quality rather than quantity of their students. Without feeling the pressures to retain or enroll students, I believe those universities can easily turn away many disqualified applicants every year and maintain their high educational standards. Admittedly, such financial aids would be a massive burden every government if there are too many universities, therefore, government must have effective policies close controlling and strict regulations on applications to establish a university or an education institute. One good example for this is my government's policy on university education. This, indeed, derives from the high demand of engineers, teachers, doctors, etc for my country. However, instead of focusing on quality of graduate students, our governments went soft on policies and allowed more universities to open and enroll students. As a result, after few years, although the number of fresh graduate student is increasing rapidly, only few of them qualify employers' standards. Maintaining the high standard educational environment, hence, should always be a vital mission for a government.
In conclusion, I believe that this is clearly a problem of such complexity that no solution is likely in the short term. However, I believe that the measures outlined above would constitute good first steps.
