IELTS Writing 2 Topic: Levels of Education

Some people say that in all levels of education, from primary schools to universities, too much time is spent on learning facts and not enough on learning practical skills. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

My essay:

It is a common belief that all educational institutions, from primary to university level, place far too much emphasis on learning facts and figures, while not focussing enough on developing practical skills, and learning how to think critically. I concur with this assessment entirely. I believe our education system spends way too much time drilling useless facts into the heads of students, and I shall illustrate my position with a few examples.

But first, I need to clarify something. There are some professions where possessing a boatload of knowledge is necessary. Medicine is one such profession. Doctors need to know about a plethora of diseases and their symptoms, and the medicines to cure them with the accurate dosages. Nobody would want a doctor who didn’t know his stuff. Similarly, an advocate needs to be extremely well-versed in the law.

But most jobs are not like this. What usually happens, is whatever you’ve learned in the classroom is useless, and the real learning happens on the job. An example off the top of my head, is sales. You can learn all the techniques you want, but they pale in comparison to what you learn when you actually sell things to people. And this is the norm for a lot of careers, not the exception. Most of what people learn in class ends up useless.

So in conclusion, while learning facts and theoretical knowledge might be required in some jobs, for most people, the stuff they learned in university will be largely useless.