Who should be responsible for academic achievement?

I do not think any one individual or group is entirely responsible for the achievement or behavior of students. I think the responsibility is shared among everyone involved in the education of students: teachers, parents, the government and the students themselves.

Whether a student is in elementary school, junior high school or high school, they are still children and cannot be held solely responsible for their achievements. Children don’t have the experience or foresight to make the right decisions to guide them to success. What a child wants and what a child needs are often not the same thing. I think it is the responsibility of the parents to guide children to make the right decisions and develop good habits. I don’t think children inherently have a drive to achieve academic success. It is therefore up to the parents and teachers to inspire children to aim for achievements.

I do not think the behavior of students is solely their own responsibility. Children do need to be taught about acceptable and unacceptable behavior. We learn a lot about how to behave naturally just from interacting with others, but without feedback and education children will not know what is expected of them. It’s important for parents to teach their children at home about what behaviors are unacceptable and why. Children often do not understand why some things are acceptable but others are not; it isn’t enough to simply say “don’t do that”, though. It’s very important to explain why. All families, especially these days, have different customs, values and behaviors, so it is unreasonable to expect teachers to have any responsibility at all in teaching children how to behave or why school is important.

I do think that teachers have some responsibility to reinforce good behaviors and discourage bad ones. While every student in a class may have different beliefs or standards we do have a general standard when it comes to behavior in every society. Teachers should aim to give students the best environment to succeed and discourage any behavior that disrupts that. If both parents and teachers reward and encourage good behavior while discouraging unacceptable behavior, children will generally learn how to behave.

I think it’s the government’s responsibility to provide safe, good quality schools and equal opportunity to attend them. I do not believe the government is responsible for the personal achievement or behavior of students. It is, however, the government’s responsibility to ensure that all students can go to school and have the same opportunities for success as any other student in their country.

I have said that the parents, teachers and government share the responsibility of ensuring academic achievement and good behavior in schools but I also believe that students have the largest responsibility in their own education. Junior high school students, high school students and those in university grow more and more capable and therefore more responsible for their own successes or failures. The government should make it so every child can go to school, parents should inspire the best behavior and teachers should encourage them to do their best, but ultimately if the students are not interested in academics or behaving in an acceptable way, it will not matter.

Spenser

Vocabulary

inherently (adv.) - in a way that exists as a natural or basic part of something
solely (adv.) ? only; not involving anyone or anything else
ultimately (adv.) - used to emphasize the most important fact in a situation; in the end
academic (adj.) ￢- relating to schools, colleges, and universities or associated with studying