Some people think that children under 18 years old should receive full-time education. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Sample Response
Many feel that students should be required to attend full-time classes until the age of 18. In my opinion, when economically viable this mandate is advisable.
Those who oppose this policy argue it is impossible in rural areasmore rural areas, particularly in developing nations. In such locations, children and teenagers often do not have convenient access to schools and assisting their parents with farm or other work is a greater priority. For example, in many rural villages in South Asia, even young children must helplend a hand working to raise crops and livestock. The parents of these children can also legitimately arguemake the legitimate argument that they are preserving a traditional and equally valuable way of life that does not involve modern schooling. However, these circumstances are becoming less commonthese contexts are becoming rarer as individuals migrate to cities and infrastructure in the countryside improvesthe countryside receives improved infrastructure.
The main reason to support compulsory full-time education to the age of 18 lies in the opportunities it createsis the opportunities it opens up in an evolving world. The lifestyle in rural areas that may currently justifynow seemingly justifies reduced schooling is disappearing due to more efficient farming equipment and the industrialization of production methods. Therefore, the most viable path for most individuals is to have an education through high school and ideally university that will endow them with employable skills. For instance, an individual who has learned a variety of subjects and graduated from formal schooling can then apply either for higher education or a job that requires a high school certificate. Both their worst and best case scenarios for the future improve considerably.
In conclusion, despite the valid reasons that exist in rural communities to de-emphasize education, it is worthwhile to enforce mandatory schooling for all minors. This is now more important than ever as job markets become more competitive.
Why this response received Band 8.0
The essay presents a clear qualified position and develops it through a thoughtful counterargument followed by a persuasive case for compulsory education. The reasoning is coherent, specific, and expressed with strong linguistic control, although a few claims about changing rural life are somewhat broad. The main improvement would be to support those claims more precisely and connect them even more directly to full-time schooling until age 18.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The response directly answers the question with a clear qualified view and develops both the exception and the main justification effectively.
Strengthen the argument by giving more precise support for the claim that rural economic conditions are rapidly disappearing.
Coherence and Cohesion
The argument progresses smoothly from qualification to support and conclusion, with cohesive devices used naturally and unobtrusively.
Make the transition from the rural counterargument to the main case even sharper by explicitly contrasting their practical scope.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is flexible, precise, and well suited to the topic, with only occasional phrasing that could be more exact.
Replace broad expressions such as an evolving world with language that specifies the relevant labour-market or technological change.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Complex sentences are varied, fluent, and consistently accurate, with only very minor punctuation refinements available.
Add punctuation around embedded qualifiers where helpful to make already sophisticated sentence structures maximally clear.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Some people think that children under 18 years old should receive full-time education. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.