School curriculum is selected by the central education authority rather than by the teachers, parents and students. Some believe that the latter should take part in the choice. Which viewpoint do you agree with?

The issue of who should design the educational program has been debated widely in our community recently. While some people argue that the teachers should be responsible for this, others are of the opinion that the government should design the curriculum. I extend my support to the latter view because I believe that the government is the most appropriate for taking such vital decisions. Firstly, the government has a better idea about what is needed in the society as they are more aware of the social and economic needs of the people rather than teachers, parents or students. Furthermore, they also conduct studies, researches and hold discussions with subject experts in many fields before choosing topics in order to make national syllabus best fit to every students. They make sure that the subjects taught will provide students with the specific skills they need to be successful in thier later life. For example, nowadays education authorities of many countries, including Vietnam, have decided to combine vocational subjects in the national education programs so as to improve the employability of people. On the other hand, a teacher’s role is to provide knowledge – to deliver the developed curriculum in the most effective way so that each student is able to learn well. Their main aim should be assessing the learning capacity and capability of each student and developing methods and tools to help them understand and learn so that they can progress well in today’s world. And the main job of students and parents is to take all the developed syllabus into practice. If teachers or any others else decide what curriculum is to be taught, there will be too much variation and hence no standardization because each teacher or student will have thier own educational program. This will not be fair to children as their knowledge level cannot be tested and compared if different curriculum exists. In other words, it will hinder government’s goal of providing equal and quality education to all children. In conclusion, I firmly believe that central education authority should be responsible for designing the national education program to ensure equal and fair education is given to all and comparable standards exist to meet the education goal of the country.