A nation should require all of its students to study the same national curriculum until they enter college

Essay topics:

A nation should require all of its students to study the same national curriculum until they enter college.

The author argues that nation should mandate all of its pupils to study national curriculum instead of allowing states or regions to design their own syllabus. A core curriculum would definitely help to serve some useful purposes, however states or schools must be allowed to augment the curriculum according to specific requirements of their region.

Certainly, having a national curriculum has its own advantages. Foremost, it will act as a leveler for all the public and private schools. Students will be equally and adequately prepared for the university entrance test such as SATs, ACTs, JEE, etc. This would ensure that schools who teach with a focus on entrance tests do not have an advantage over those oriented towards projects and exploration based learning. Beyond this, a national syllabus would be a guarantee that students entering colleges have same foundation level from where colleges can build upon to nurture them into respective professionals. Moreover, such a curriculum can be used to foster a feeling of national identity and unity among students. For example, a well-thought syllabus on humanities can disseminate certain national fundamental values such as fraternity, liberty, tolerance, etc. Similarly, reading national history will inculcate a sense of pride and patriotism among all students alike.

However, an inflexible curriculum has its own implications and limitations. Firstly, it doesn’t cater to the different abilities and interests of the students. In many countries, students who score low in school exams are given an opportunity to pursue occupational subjects, whereas high-scoring students can opt for advanced STEM courses. While this policy definitely serves the requirement of a diverse workforce, a rigid national syllabus would have no scope for it. Moreover, students with interests and aptitude for specific areas such as music, painting, etc. would either be deprived of such pursuits or will have to settle for a very basic course level as delineated by the national curriculum.

Furthermore, for a diverse country, implementation of the author’s recommendation will have further ramifications and limitations. While inclusion of national history in the curriculum is beneficial, it could be at the cost of regional history of states. Students can be deprived from studying topics on local culture, geography, weather, etc. Similarly, nationalizing the syllabus also entail a common language of instruction which is difficult to select in the absence of a national language - as in India. While English can still be used as a unifying language, getting hold of it would be extremely difficult at the initial level for students from non-English speaking families. Moreover, though a national curriculum can be used to inculcate core democratic values, it can also act as a tool for the ruling political party to peddle their agenda. Therefore, the very idea of a national curriculum, let alone implementation, may face fierce objection from rival and regional politicians and other stakeholders.

Finally, for big and developing countries such a policy invokes a hefty investment and substantial efforts. Building a national board would require that all the teachers, schools, and students are at a standard level. Therefore, hundreds of thousands of teachers ought to be trained so that they can transfer knowledge effectively. Similarly, an astronomical numbers of rural schools, lacking even benches and toilets, would need to be equipped with modern laboratories. Students who have never had access to a computer may be required to be trained in computer programming. Hence, many of those countries may either be unwilling or unable to implement the author’s proposition.

Yet, the advantages of a national curriculum can be reaped while averting drawbacks using some modifications. Firstly, only the high-school curriculum should be nationalized. This will ensure a lesser number of students and teachers requiring additional training and focus. Secondly, only specific subjects must have a uniform syllabus; states, and even schools, must have the autonomy and room to include electives. This will ensure that regional relevance is addressed in the curriculum. Lastly, the design of a national curriculum must be left to independent experts from different regions rather than bureaucrats or government advisors. This will serve to preserve a country’s socio-political diversity.

In conclusion, while a national curriculum ensures equal opportunities for all the students and fosters national integrity, a rigidly implemented policy would have deleterious effect on a country’s socio-political diversity and economy. Therefore, such a curriculum must have scope for addition of subjects at local level; be implemented only for high-schools and be designed by independent professionals.

Votes
Average: 7.5 (1 vote)
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Comments

Transition Words or Phrases used:
finally, first, firstly, hence, however, if, lastly, may, moreover, second, secondly, similarly, so, therefore, well, whereas, while, for example, in conclusion, such as

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 18.0 19.5258426966 92% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 32.0 12.4196629213 258% => Less auxiliary verb wanted.
Conjunction : 24.0 14.8657303371 161% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 11.3162921348 88% => OK
Pronoun: 24.0 33.0505617978 73% => OK
Preposition: 58.0 58.6224719101 99% => OK
Nominalization: 12.0 12.9106741573 93% => OK

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3273.0 2235.4752809 146% => OK
No of words: 579.0 442.535393258 131% => OK
Chars per words: 5.65284974093 5.05705443957 112% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.90534594407 4.55969084622 108% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.11124928156 2.79657885939 111% => OK
Unique words: 300.0 215.323595506 139% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.518134715026 0.4932671777 105% => OK
syllable_count: 1030.5 704.065955056 146% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.8 1.59117977528 113% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 6.24550561798 96% => OK
Article: 10.0 4.99550561798 200% => Less articles wanted as sentence beginning.
Subordination: 2.0 3.10617977528 64% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.77640449438 113% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.38483146067 68% => OK

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 31.0 20.2370786517 153% => OK
Sentence length: 18.0 23.0359550562 78% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 42.3409185292 60.3974514979 70% => OK
Chars per sentence: 105.580645161 118.986275619 89% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.6774193548 23.4991977007 79% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.45161290323 5.21951772744 104% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 4.97078651685 121% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 7.80617977528 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 17.0 10.2758426966 165% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 5.13820224719 39% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 12.0 4.83258426966 248% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.316261750406 0.243740707755 130% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0883081261495 0.0831039109588 106% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0829135339446 0.0758088955206 109% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.182509347144 0.150359130593 121% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0566946512342 0.0667264976115 85% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.5 14.1392134831 103% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 36.28 48.8420337079 74% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.92365168539 111% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.7 12.1743820225 104% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 15.49 12.1639044944 127% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.57 8.38706741573 114% => OK
difficult_words: 185.0 100.480337079 184% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 9.0 11.8971910112 76% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.2 11.2143820225 82% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.7820224719 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?

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Rates: 75.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.5 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.