Exam season is upon us again and once more, students are reaching out to excessive amount of revision guides, revision cards and all the abundance of videos on the internet that they can manage to scroll through. Yet, through the hours spent on the said revision, many students are losing focus of the main aim of education. It is not only to educate but to also teach students the profound skills needed to lead a stable enough lifestyle. At the end of the day, the only concern of students and teachers alike is to get the grade, a grade that would allow the student to aim for higher education or get a job that will put enough money in the wallet. Many sixth form students specifically, those who are preparing for university when asked why they are taking their current subjects, commented on the fact that it will pay well. Many are taking maths and the sciences, not because they enjoy the subjects but because if thought through, the subjects can lead to professional careers which would pay well and thus enable the students to earn a decent living. This however, will just enable the student to not live a content enough life when they enter their professions and they thus won’t enjoy the job enough. Yes, it will pay the bills, but the individual would never enjoy it as much as they would’ve done had they chosen subjects they were genuinely interested in.
Another crucial thing which can be mentioned is, studying for the sake of studying. Now, this may be a questionable statement but all students do it. Sometimes, it’s to just get the weight of exams off our chest, other times, it’s because some students don’t particularly like the subject because it doesn’t really spark their interest but they still have to pass nonetheless. It’s not, “Oh, I don’t like it, therefore I won’t bother with it”, it’s more so, “Yes, I don’t particularly like this subject but I want my report to look good this term, so I’m going to try to at least pass”. However, this type of positive thinking is quite farfetched and takes many students some time to accept it and develop the said thought. The idea of forcing yourself to do a subject which you very much dislike seems tiring and extremely pointless but also the thought of passing it feels rewarding and triumphant.
So, to conclude, studying for the sake of it, whether it is to land a profession that the student is not interested in or to just get the grade misses the point of education entirely. The thought of earning enough money, and thus sacrificing an individual’s own interest is very much off the mark of what education is supposed to be. It is more focused on the number of zeros on a pay check or the grade an individual desperately wants to get. It is not to justify that an individual should not go after their main interests which would support them in later life but more so that the individual needs to analyse every aspect of the situation in regards to their education as to not lose interest in what they’re doing or what they wish to accomplish.
Hamna Kashif (Ursuline Academy Ilford)
