Some people believe that teaching children at home is best for a child’s development while others think that it is important for children to go to school. Discuss the advantages of both methods and give your own opinion.
Sample Response
Education was carried at homes for centuries. There were not schools. Teachers were hired for wealthy people. The poor could not afford for teachers so their children did not take any education. The most people were illiterate. Then appeared voices that more education could improving life of all class of society. So schools were established, but education at home was still popular at wealthier homes. Both school and education at home have some advantages and disadvantages. Teaching children at home gives them more opportunity to understand any subject. All attention is paying to one pupil and every question is answered. There is no possibility to cheat or be unprepared to lesson. Students could develop their interesting in any subject very easily. This is the better way to be very good prepared for every exam. But, in general, this is the most expensive way to have well educated child. Children, who are educated alone, have less friends and colleagues, are more selfish and could have difficulties in adult life. School, again in general, is reasonably cheaper than home education. There is less attention for one pupil but among more children is some kind of rivalry. Students learn because want to be better than friend or colleague. They meet more people so their life is more civilized. Friendship for all life starts very often in school. Adult life has less mysteries for them than for children educated at homes. However there are more violence, more opportunity to meet bad company and finally end school without any education. In conclude, school has more advantages because not only teach, but also socialize pupils. And for parenting two of the most important subjects are good education and good breeding. It is the best preparing for adult life.
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Correct education phrase Original: carried at homes Suggested revision: provided at home Why it matters: Education is “provided” or “conducted,” and the fixed expression is “at home.”
- 2. Use correct determiner Original: not Suggested revision: no Why it matters: “There were no schools” is the correct existential structure.
- 3. Correct agent preposition Original: for Suggested revision: by Why it matters: The passive verb “were hired” takes “by” to identify who hired the teachers.
- 4. Remove extra preposition Original: afford for teachers Suggested revision: afford teachers Why it matters: The verb “afford” takes a direct object without “for.”
- 5. Use correct collocation Original: take Suggested revision: receive Why it matters: English uses “receive an education,” not “take education,” in this context.
- 6. Remove incorrect article Original: The most people Suggested revision: Most people Why it matters: “Most” does not take “the” when referring generally to the majority of people.
- 7. Use household phrasing Original: at wealthier homes Suggested revision: in wealthier households Why it matters: “In wealthier households” accurately describes families where home education remained popular.
- 8. Make terms parallel Original: Both school and education at home Suggested revision: Both schooling and home education Why it matters: The two coordinated alternatives need parallel noun forms.
- 9. Use passive form Original: paying Suggested revision: paid Why it matters: Attention is the receiver of the action, so the passive form is required.
- 10. Fix preposition and article Original: unprepared to lesson Suggested revision: unprepared for a lesson Why it matters: The adjective takes “for,” and the singular count noun needs an article.
- 11. Use adverb form Original: good Suggested revision: well Why it matters: The adverb “well” modifies the participial adjective “prepared.”
- 12. Use countable quantifier Original: less Suggested revision: fewer Why it matters: Use “fewer” with countable plural nouns.
Suggested Rewrites
- carried at homes provided at home
- not no
- for by
- afford for teachers afford teachers
- take receive
- The most people Most people
Why this response received Band 5.5
The response covers advantages of both home education and school and ends with a clear preference for schooling, so its central position is understandable throughout. Its main weakness is the high frequency of grammatical and word-choice errors, which makes many sentences awkward even when the meaning can be recovered. The highest priority is to build accurate sentence patterns, especially articles, verb forms, agreement, and noun forms, while developing fewer points more fully.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The response addresses both educational methods and gives a clear opinion, although several advantages are briefly asserted or overgeneralised.
Develop the strongest advantage of each method with a clear explanation or concrete example and reduce the lengthy historical background.
Coherence and Cohesion
The discussion moves recognisably from background to home education, schooling, and a conclusion, but the single-block presentation and choppy sequencing weaken cohesion.
Use clear paragraph breaks and connect neighbouring ideas through logical relationships rather than a succession of short statements.
Lexical Resource
There is enough vocabulary to discuss education and social development, but frequent inaccurate word forms and collocations reduce precision.
Practise common education-related collocations and check noun, adjective, and verb forms in phrases such as developing interests and preparing for exams.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Some complex structures are attempted, but frequent errors with articles, verb forms, agreement, plurals, and sentence completeness repeatedly affect accuracy.
Prioritise complete subject-verb sentence patterns and systematically edit each sentence for articles, agreement, and correct verb forms.
Write this task while it is fresh
Try the same task now. It helps you remember the feedback and write better next time.
IELTS Writing Task 2
Some people believe that teaching children at home is best for a child’s development while others think that it is important for children to go to school. Discuss the advantages of both methods and give your own opinion.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.