Damian Hinds, the Education Secretary says that the stressful situations of exam time are a great way to make the young generation prepared for all kind of tough episodes that will come in the future.
Exam stress is not a new thing and every student will agree on the fact that dealing with this stress can be a bit choking. However, Damian does not think so as he defended the new bill regarding making the GCSE tougher in the future. Backing his support he said that the pupils need to be prepared from a very early stage to deal with adult life and having tougher exams will be a helpful nudge to them and their careers.
Damian also commented that there can be a lot many things in a student’s curriculum which may not be any help in the future but there are also many things that will be helpful for their future. He says that tougher exams are an effective way to learn resilience which is one of the most important characteristics that an adult should have. This stress will help the students to deal with new situations and people they will meet in university, college and job. After school most of the places one will go to, people will ask for results, therefore, one should be ready to handle such stressful episodes.
According to a recent poll including 1500 pupil and their parents, the exam stress is one of the biggest stresses in a student’s life and it is affecting their mental and psychological health. It is seen that since 2017, in England when the GCSE was introduced, thousands of students have been appearing on it. Hinds also said that in exams the knowledge of the students should be tested and addressed correctly and that qualifications are one of the most important facets of a person’s life.
He mentioned that studying new things and new subjects may not always help one deal with various activities in a job but it will enhance one’s mathematical thinking skills which will prove to be highly effective in the real world. Various subjects like mathematics, science, languages, computer, etc. will help one in training their brain so that they can grasp new things and can analyze new situations in different and effective ways. He also mentioned that now the conditions of the schools and their educational levels are way better funded than before and most of the schools are managing perfectly even with a tighter budget. The tighter budget is because of new expenses and cost that the schools have to incur.
Mr. Damian also said that the government should have better recruitment strategy to retain experienced teachers and staff in the teaching profession. He also focused on the lessening attainment gap between the disadvantaged community schools and elite schools. According to him, the family should also put in equal effort regarding early learning stages of a children’s life so that they can learn things from their home as well as schools.
