ENGLISH ORAL - Need help/ideas

[jemima.allpress]

Just searching for some ideas for my oral presentation....
Am planning to use the question 'Are students too pressured to excel?' and am taking the side of yes, we are ...however, need some contention ideas and argument topics.
Could possibly talk and elaborate on the following
 - stress statistics are quite high for high school student
 - school is only pressuring students to make the school look better/doing it for the school rather than the student
 - students are only learning because they are forced to nowadays, rather than because they enjoy it
 
Just some more ideas....even opposing views would be great!

Please and thankyou

[caffinatedloz]

Hey!
You could also talk about how students are prioritising the wrong things in regard to their learning. They would prefer to rote learn and memorise and get excellent marks, rather than to research further and find out about things that interest them and grow in their own understanding.
You may also want to mention how students may enjoy learning more if they have more control over what they study and feel less pressure about achieving in exams.

Extending on from the stress statistics, you could explore the topic of mental health issues further.

The decisions schools make to make themselves look good would also be something quite interesting (as you mentioned). I know that some schools control what subjects their students can choose based on past grades so that they can get the best possible scores, even if the student would have enjoyed the subject and gotten a reasonable mark. I have also heard of schools who force students down the VCAL pathway to maintain their averages and reputation.

Best of luck!

[jemima.allpress]

Thanks a lot laura

your suggestions are really helpful!
i like what you say about having more control over our studying so we are less pressured about what we achieve in exams...it seems like every lesson we have the teacher can't go past without saying something about the end of year exams...
what you say about schools controlling what subjects the students is interesting, and the VCAL...do you know of any specific schools..? Just want to sound as credible as possible.
I know that some schools also stop students from doing exams, in order to raise their average score...just an example of why some schools do it for their ranking and reputation rather than for the student.

[caffinatedloz]

Found a link to an article I've read it the past. Other examples that you could use for evidence include this, though I'm sure there are more horror stories out there.

Edit:
Kept researching and I also found this.

[jemima.allpress]

Thanks again laura...very helpful

just reading through them now...pretty selfish of schools to do that.