IELTS Writing Task 2 Topic: School teachers are more responsible than parents

Zuhana

4 min read

Updated On Feb 08, 2024

Essay Plan
Essay

IELTS Writing Prediction Questions for 2024

The Essay Writing section of the IELTS Writing Module can be a difficult task for many IELTS Aspirants. Thus, it is vital that you polish your essay writing skills before attempting the IELTS.

Below is a sample IELTS Essay for the IELTS Essay topic:

For school children, their teachers have more influence on their intelligence and social development than their parents. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

(or)

School teachers are more responsible for social and intellectual development of students than parents. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Get Evaluated for FREE:

Do you have an essay on this topic? Please post it in the comments section. One of our IELTS trainers will evaluate your essay from an examiner’s point of view and reply to the comment. This service is completely FREE of cost.

Essay Plan

• Introduction : (1) refer to the task question (2) my opinion – teachers have more influence on intelligence, parents have more influence on social development

• Paragraph 2 : (1) teachers are trained to impart knowledge to children and stimulate their intelligence – example – dedicated teachers who inspire youngsters (2) parents may play a supporting role

• Paragraph 3 : parents have more influence than teachers on the social development of their children. (1) parents spend more time with their children than children spend in school (2) parents can be role models for their children in a wide range of social situations – give examples

• Conclusion : re-state opinion given in the introduction, paraphrasing some words.

[do_widget id=custom_html-24]

Essay

It is true that school children are at an impressionable age, and two strong influences on their intelligence and social development are teachers and parents. While I accept that teachers may have more influence on the intelligence of their pupils, I would argue that parents probably exert a greater influence on the social development of their children.

In terms of encouraging intellectual development and stimulating the intelligence of school children, I believe that teachers play the major role. While not all teachers are capable of inspiring their students, they are trained to impart their knowledge of their subject areas in challenging and imaginative ways. For example, some students owe their lifelong love of a subject to dedicated teachers who taught this discipline in secondary school. Of course, at home, parents may also reinforce this passion by encouraging good study habits during the formative years of their children. Such support is vital for academic achievement.

From the perspective of social development, I think that parents are mainly responsible for guiding their children. Firstly, they spend far more time with their children than any individual teacher is able to do. They can therefore monitor the activities of children outside school hours, at weekends and during holidays. Secondly, parents are able to provide role models in a whole range of situations. These might include showing respect towards elders, choice of friends, or proper behaviour in public when eating out in restaurants.

In conclusion, although teachers probably have a greater effect in stimulating the intelligence of school children, parental influences on the development of children are stronger in social situations.

[do_widget id=custom_html-47]

Vocabulary

impressionable [adjective]:

Meaning: easily influenced or affected by somebody or something Example: Advertising is often targeted at impressionable age groups, such as children and adolescents.

to exert influence on [expression]:

Meaning: to use one’s power to affect somebody or something
Example: Rock music exerted a strong influence on me when I was a teenager.

to impart their knowledge [expression]:

Meaning: to pass knowledge to other people
Example: Good teachers are inspired to impart their knowledge of their subject to their students.

dedicated [adjective]:

Meaning: working very hard at something, because it is important to you Example: John is a very dedicated student, so he deserves to be successful.

discipline [noun]:

Meaning: a subject that people study or are taught
Example: The school has excellent teachers in various scientific disciplines, such as physics and chemistry.

to reinforce [verb]:

Meaning: to make a feeling or an idea stronger
Example: In order to reinforce her understanding of mathematics, Ann is taking a course at night school.

formative years [expression];

Meaning: having an important and lasting influence on the development of something or of somebody’s character
Example: Parents should supervise their children closely during the formative years of their adolescence.

to monitor [verb]:

Meaning: to watch and check something over a period of time
Example: As a security guard, his job is to monitor who comes into the building.

elders [noun]:

Meaning: people of greater age, experience or authority
Example: When we were children, our parents taught US to respect our elders,
because they were older and wiser than US.

to eat out [phrasal verb]

Meaning: to have a meal in a restaurant, not at home
Example: Last night, Caroline and I ate out at a Chinese restaurant.

parental [adjective]:

Meaning: connected with a parent or parents
Example: They don’t want to have children, because they think that they are too young to accept parental responsibilities.