To What extent do you think that the Main purpose of Education should be to prepare young people for the world of work? What do you consider the main purpose to be? Which do you regard as the most important?

That which is taught in schools is mostly irrelevant to life, but it is relevant to getting a career, employment and various qualifications. But why? Why are we judged on how well we regurgitate knowledge into a flippant exam paper in an hour or so? Ce la vie I guess. However, schooling plays an important part in life. It is the building block of our social and communication skills and the education in these values we receive is invaluable. Without these skills we would have a hard time getting anywhere in life. These things however are not "taught" at school, it is something most people will pick up due to the fact that you have to communicate in school and you learn socially through the process of making friends and finding things to do with those friends. So is school relevant? The answer to that is yes, without school we would be far worse off, but to what extent is the main purpose of education to teach young people about work?

In my view, it isn't a schools job to teach young people about this. It is helpful, but I think it is defiantly another thing that youths will just pick up, and sometimes people need to accept that. Too much pressure is put on students, especially around the time of their G.C.S.E's to choose a career and then they are harshly patronised by the "guidance counsellor" telling them that "they don't have to choose anything yet. Its sickening to say the least. It would be fun to see what would happen if a student was left to their own devices, given no "guidance" and no career advice. 9/10 students who do well in there G.C.S.E's will go on to higher education anyway, so why worry bout a career now? It is important to keep tabs on all students to make sure they have the right frame work and state of mind to let them go into employment straight after compulsory education finishes, this means a guidance counsellor would be needed, which means I have totalling contradicted myself.

I think if a guidance counsellor actually provided some worthwhile information then it would defiantly be worth it, as it is, it seems that unnecessary stress is being heaped upon students at too early an age. With parents doing it as well, it is create an unenviable situation where the child becomes trapped under the burden of all the pressures they have. This will probably have an outcome on their G.C.S.E results and therefore their career, so inadvertently, by trying to help them the career guidance has down nothing, and now they need it.

I believe the main purpose of education is to teach right from wrong and the basics of modern life. Everyone should be able to read and write and handle basic maths. Anything that is needed in everyday life should be taught at school. The basic ways of life should be a taught; there is a basic need for children to learn, although learning through their peers doesn't always work well.

I believe the most important aspect of education is to be relevant, without relevance education is almost completely useless. We need to look to make schooling more relevant and more advantageous to children.