Education system analysis essay

The education system is faced with one of the greatest tests in the recent times, to realign it with the needs of the society. The purpose of education according to (Cremlin, Lawrence, Ravitch, Diane, 2000) is to impart in children knowledge, which aids in the growth and development. For education to meet the above criterion, it has to be well balanced and designed to meet the psychological needs of the students, the social needs of the students as well as the developmental needs of the children. The educational system must also be designed in such a manner as to be responsive to the market demands. Education system should be designed in such a manner that it equips learners with the necessary skills to help learners to cope better with their environment as well as to fulfill their inner most and felt needs. Unless the kind of education offered to the learners meet their felt needs, then that is an indication that, the education system is not responsive to the educational needs of the learners.

In the state of Kentucky, just like in many other states, the question as to which is better between ‘ teaching to the test’ or ‘ teaching to the child’ has been dominating educational debates for some time now. In line with the purpose of education demonstrated in this discussion, education should result into full development of the mind, the soul and the body of the learner. Unfortunately this is not what is happening in the education system in the United States of America. In an effort to be seen to be teaching and delivering results teachers, have become ineffective in that they have continued to lay a greater emphasis on tests. It is easy for teachers to drill learners to perform well in examinations but this does not in any way mean that the children achieve their educational goals. The pressure teachers are under to demonstrate results is partly to blame for this problem especially in the public schools. Teachers are increasingly being required to meet given performance measures which include high children achievements, this places the teacher in a tricky situation in which they are required to demonstrate their effectiveness in the way children end up scoring in their subjects.

This has led to a situation whereby teachers are no longer keen on quality or what they teach but on the outcome. For educational goals to be met certain factors have to be right. For instance, there has to be an enabling classroom environment, the staff must be effective which means they must be well trained and qualified; the learning materials must be available. In addition, the teacher must be in control of the class. The situation in the American classrooms is different. The teachers are no longer able to reign on undisciplined students because there is no enough time set aside for leaner development.

The fact that little or no time is spared in teacher-learner interactions means that the learners are unable to fully benefit from the learning process. The recent educational reforms designed to boost the all-time low educational standards in the United States basic education have placed a heavy burden on teachers. As a result, teachers have become too busy to implement a learner centred approach to education. Taking the example of the No Child Left Behind Act, it has placed great responsibilities on the child especially in regards to literacy and accounting skills achievement ignoring other developmental goals of a child such the needs for sports and other extracurricular goals.

. The reforms tend to emphasize on deliverables such as high performance in Math and English but not in the process of delivering the results. Therefore, the results have failed to address the human resource constraints especially the need for more teachers, more classrooms as well as increase in funding for the education system.

The fact that the school district system has been accused for failing to offer the required leadership in implementation of the education system means that learners cannot benefit from effective teaching. This has left teachers very vulnerable and feeling more detached to the education process. Teaching is supposed to be done with devotion and commitment and therefore allowing the teachers to feel vulnerable and not part of the system is counter-productive. There is a need for the government to introduce changes geared towards restoring education quality in the United States of America.

The reforms so far do not seem to be working. It is approximated that the quality of education in America’s elementary level is not at par with that of other developed countries such as Britain (Parkerson, Donald & Parkerson, Jo Ann, 2001). This is a wake up call for the government to make the necessary changes. There is a need to commission more research geared towards establishing the causal effects leading to the ever-decreasing education standards. There is also a need for a multisectoral approach to the solution to the myriad of problems facing the education system. The American society is usually a fast-paced society whereby majority of parents fail to take interest in the education of their children. This leaves the teachers with the burden of modeling the young ones into responsible members of the society. The teachers on their part are overworked and do not have enough time to meet their teaching needs leave alone meeting the developmental goals of the children.

This situation has also resulted in high incidences of indiscipline in schools. The children’s social needs are rarely addressed neither the parents nor the teachers have the time to mold the children. This therefore has contributed to the high levels of drug abuse amongst school age children as well as increased cases of teen pregnancy.

The above clearly points out to a problem, which must be addressed as a matter of urgency. The social demands modern lifestyle therefore puts so much pressure on the parents and teachers such that children have turned to their peers to learn what the parents should be teaching. With such a scenario, it is no wonder that educational levels are deteriorating, student indiscipline cases are on the rise and the government is unclear on what just went wrong with the education sector.

ConclusionThe solution to the current problems facing education lies in the stakeholders working in harmony. Teachers must collaborate with parents and education officials to come up with long lasting solutions. Particularly parents need to come in, instead of leaving the whole burden of modeling children to an already overworked teaching force. ReferencesCremlin, Lawrence, A. Ravitch, Diane. 2000.

Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms. Simon and Schuster. Parkerson, Donald H. and Parkerson, Jo Ann. 2001. Transitions in American Education: A social History of Teaching.

Routledge.