「雅思范文」教育公平（20201121 大陆卷）

 【20201121 大陆】Some people say that all young people should be required to stay in full-time education until they are at least 18 years old. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

本题问的是是否应该把高中也纳入义务教育范畴，文章从机会成本和预算的角度进行了阐述。

It is sometimes argued that compulsory education should be extended until students reach adulthood. However, I do not agree with the suggestion, since it will lead to a mismatch of manpower resources and will consume a considerable proportion of government budgets.

Nowadays, many countries are in desperate need of human capital in the service industry, such as technicians and nursing care staff. The manpower on which modern societies depend requires vocational training or apprenticeship rather than full-time education. Some adolescents’ talents do not lie in academics, and they will dedicate themselves to manual labour with physical skills sooner or later. If they are trapped in theoretical studies for another couple of years, it will do no good to their career perspective except for occupying several precious years that could be otherwise dedicated to on-the-job training or accumulating real-life experience, and the labour market deficiencies will be more severe.

Another problem of including senior high schools in compulsory education is the huge waste of budgets. Prolonge d education is conducted at the cost of providing teaching facilities and hiring teachers, posing an extra burden on public expenditure. Such budget, whether earmarked from other areas that are more relevant to the public’s well-being such as public transportation or medical care, or extracted from heavier tax, must yield results beneficial to society.

However, as argued above, extending compulsory education may do more harm than good to the labour market. Therefore, I do not regard it a wise idea to require every student to stay on campus until they are 18 years old.