Students need to learn practical skills: Agree or disagree?

Topic: Some people think that students at school need to learn practical skills such as repairing a car or maintaining a bank account, in addition to traditional academic subjects. To what extent do you agree or disagree? Give your opinion and support it with examples.

When I was a high school student I always asked this question to myself that: why should I study pure scientific subjects like physics, chemistry, and the like? I think many other people advocate my opinion that besides theoretical topics, some workshops are also required to immensely ameliorate students skills. Therefore, this essay aims to argue how the implementation of practical workshops and laboratories can help us to make a stronger education system.

To begin with, no theoretical concept is perceived effectively without observing its applications. I am a tutor at the Melbourne University for the subject of Materials. When I give a lecture to my students about fatigue fracture, as an example, they barely see themselves connected to the topic. However, when I show them how a part is failed as a result of alternating loads, which is known as fatigue failure, they completely digest the matter. Thus, if the same system is used for lower degree students, like high school pupils, they will definitely understand subjects more efficiently.

Moreover, providing students with a wide range of workshops will give them a promising opportunity to find out in what profession they are interested. Assume you are studying in a school where different electrical machines, welding equipment, and mechanical testing instruments are available. Posing this educational atmosphere not only familiarizes you with divers industrial environments, but also you can easily recognize in what filed you have talent and probably become successful in your occupational future.

Finally, if schools limit their teaching plans to sciences, the learning atmosphere becomes too strict and even boring for young students. School students are energetic and they need more activities too enjoy their time spending on learning new subjects. If schools take advantage of this fact and employ students' energy to work in workshops, it would positively affect students. In other words, such educative programs that show students how to apply theories in action, change the pure academic school's environment into a place full of sheer joy, where students' professional skills are developed.

In conclusion, the traditional education system, in which only theories are presented, needs a remarkable change. By adding practical workshops not only more skilful students are produced to serve the society, but also it may change schools to fun places.

Okay, I can sense a problem with the way that you presented your essay. You accidentally concentrated in the field of science rather than the big picture that the essay was asking you to consider. That is, "Do students need to learn how to do practical things in life in school aside from the academic lessons they receive?" The answer to that question is yes. If I may, let me show you another way to have answered this essay.

My apologies for hijacking your essay. I was trying to show you the need to sometimes, delve deeper into the background of the questions and the need to sometimes, but not always, refer to the past as a source of factual data for present day discussions. Let me know if I overstepped my bounds :-)

Hello Ahmad!
Good work writing this essay, it was enjoyable to read but I see a very small mistake...


What do you mean by divers? The only definition I know is divers and in Olympic divers... Could you possibly mean engineers who uses various tools? I got confused...

In addition, I think your second paragraph could use more details... Your second paragraph main idea is that students will find more opportunities to learn about their preferences but it's only a three sentence paragraph... Of course, I'm not saying more is always good, but it is lacking details. Maybe you can put in an example of how a student will realize his preferences? It can be simple of course, I'm just saying that paragraph looks lonely without details. ^o^. Hope you find my comments useful!

Divers means "various". The words "diversity" and "divers" both have the same root.

Thanks for your comments :)

Hi Luisa, Thank you for the perfect sample you provided me. But some of your comments are not clear to me. The prompt asked that "do students need practical skills besides theoretical concepts they learn in schools?", so I replied yes, because of three reasons: practical workshops 1) help students to understand theories, 2) find out their talents, 3) enjoy learning something. Why do you thing what I wrote is not related to the topic, or deviated from the topic? The topic did not ask "HOW they can use sciences in real lives, it just mentioned some examples of practical skills". Practical skills are not limited to cooking, or repairing a car. The fatigue fracture I mentioned in second paragraph is an important branch of engineering and many industrial problems stem from this failure.


To be honest I have a problem with this topic, cause the logic behind the topic is wrong. If you want to look deeper, we will come to the conclusion that the issue mentioned in the topic no longer exists, because today there are schools called "Technical and Professional Schools". These schools focus on practical skills and the goal of these schools is that to produce professional workforce. So, even if I want to look over the topic in terms of history of education in schools I reach this idea that the topic is dated and does not belong to this age.

I read your essay and it gave me very good ideas, what I wrote above does not mean that I am defending my work or I don't agree with what you wrote, I only tried to let you know how I feel and think about the topic. I would be happy if you criticize what I argued above :)

Thanks again for your time and help :)

We have an open discussion about the topic. Which is a good thing thing :-) So let me address your concerns and questions with my explanations. No offense taken on my end.

One of the first things you have to remember is that when you are writing an IELTS or TOEFL essay is that you will be dealing with people who are not familiar with your profession. So while your example works for you, being a tutor in the field of science, it may not be easily understandable to the reader, so err on the side of caution and use more practical examples that can easily be understood by anyone reading your essay.

I did not mean that your essay was not related to the topic. What I was pointing out was that there were 2 ways to view the essay prompt. I showed the other way that the essay could be written based upon a different understanding of the prompt requirements. While you consider that vocational and professional schools are more practical in modern times, the fact that the exposure to these programs do not exist in high school for most students means that they will not be able to consider non-degree related professions upon graduation. Exposure to non-degree related classes in high school or earlier will help them discover their niches, talents, and abilities make the idea of attending professional school more feasible for these students and agrees with the prompt in terms of the need for practical lessons to be taught in schools.

What is viewed as dated and irrelevant today may still have some practical uses in current education. Remember, not everything that is an old concept is useless or irrelevant. Sometimes, it comes across as a necessary part of evolution, since what is old can be implemented in a new manner.

In the end, we both agree with with the same thing, that there is a need for practical lessons to be integrated into school lessons for practical reasons :-)

Examiners force me to think about topics which are not in my immediate field of experties, and I make them to think about what I know and they don't :DD just joking :D

Thanks for the clarifications. So, what should I do now, rewrite this topic again? I'm a bit worried about vocab, I think it was not strong enough, right?

Honestly, the essay is fine. The only problem like I previously mentioned, is that you use examples that require a certain type of expertise to understand.You need to bring your samples closer to earth for the ordinary man to better understand. Try to keep your essays less technical and use simple, everyday vocabulary whenever you can. You don't have to strive to sound academic all the time. Formal yes, academic, not necessarily. If you want to give the essay another go then do so and I will offer a new review. Otherwise, go on to the next practice prompt so we can continue with your writing exercises and hopefully, make new progress :-)