Agree / Disagree Essay — 20-minute Screencast
Task 2 Prompt: “Some people believe that unpaid community service should be a compulsory part of high school programmes.” To what extent do you agree or disagree?
This video features guidelines to composing a successful argumentative essay for the IELTS exam, and a complete model essay.
Some think community service done for free ought to be made mandatory to graduate high school. In addition to benefiting the community, this type of work would boost student self-worth and provide non-traditional learning opportunities applicable to students’ future job prospects. Therefore, mandating community service in high school is undoubtedly beneficial.
Widespread volunteerism would primarily be of great benefit to the community at large. By providing a young, able-bodied work-force to charitable groups that otherwise lack the resources, a high school program of this sort would allow charitable organizations to further meet the needs of the community and perhaps take on more ambitious projects. After all, charities by nature have limited means and tend to collapse under lack of funding or squandering resources. Because human resources are such a large cost to many organizations, the ability to harness the labor capacity of the youth in a positive way would allow charitable groups to focus less on fund-raising and resource management, and more on coordinating labor and meeting the needs of the community.
Secondly, involvement in charitable work would bring a multitude of benefits to the students themselves. Students would develop interpersonal skills that are applicable to future work. Because high schools are age ghettos, community service exposes teenagers to other social demographics which are found in the working world. Moreover, the work experience the high school students obtain could be added to their resumes when they look for that first job. Not only that, but students can also develop their sense of self-worth through involvement in charitable work. While some students may already be involved in collaborative activities which develop their interpersonal skills, others have limited opportunities to participate in groups or clubs that offer such rewarding involvement as community service does. Because of the extent to which technology has replaced outdoor activity and the emphasis placed on high-stakes exams today, working with charities not only provides a respite from study and time away from screens, it gives students the chance to encounter the working world and exposure to professions before they must actually fend for themselves as adults.
In sum, mandatory community service ought to be a component of all high school curricula. (364 words)