THE IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION IN A COUNTRY BY DAVID DURÁN MARTÍN (PE TEACHER)

Today I will talk about the importance of a good education for the inhabitants of a country. Focusing on Spain, my country, I think we have a rather grim educational system, which has taken us to the bottom of the results in the famous PISA report (by the way, PISA stands for Programme for International Student Assessment) From my point of view there are several reasons: an excessive number of pupils per classroom (during this academic year 2013/2014 I have 33 students in a class), a clear lack of motivation on the part of teachers, a requirement of pupils and students to study until they become 16 years of age does not help (I really think that students who do not want to study, at 13 or 14 years old could be diverted towards learning a trade) and the most important reason, in my opinion, the lack of parental involvement in their children's education. By this I mean to say that the parents do not spend enough time with their children, and in many cases do not act correctly, being too lenient on them, and in this way their children become too pampered.

Getting back to the topic, I would argue that education is the cornerstone of the good economic and social development of a country. That is why advanced countries invest heavily in the improvement of the quality of education. Well prepared students, with good academic and language training, will lead to major economic income for a country in the future.

I would not like to finish this statement without criticising the current governments which are making cutbacks in educational areas, such as less teachers, fewer resources, more students per classroom, less attention to diversity… In my opinion, this is a big mistake, since there is no doubt that education is the best investment a country can make during a time of crisis.