Writing Paper: Part 2
Task type: Letter to an editor

Question
You are reading your favourite newspaper and you come across a letter which attacks the education system in your country (or a country that you know well).

Write a letter to the editor of the newspaper giving your response to Prof. Collins' letter (about 250 words)

Name: PALLA SABRINA

THE BRITISH COUNCIL-NAPLES (ITALY)

Dear Sir,

I am writing this letter in response to Prof .Collins' letter, published on {1} your newspaper one week ago{2}. In his letter, Prof. Collins expressed his concern about our school system, defined by him as "out-of-date", and suggesting, at the same time, the urgent need for a necessary educational reform. I wish to take this opportunity to express my personal opinion, which is only partly agree with {3} Prof. Collins' view. According to Prof. Collins, the process of school modernization should pass through three main features: the need for better teachers, practical skills learning and more investiments in school equipment.

As for the first point, it seems to me that the real problem is not the need for "better" teachers but, on the contrary, the need for a new way of teaching. In my opinion,what is really "out-of-date" is the traditional methodological approach, which is still too much linked to a mnemonic and abstract learning and too little concerned about real social contest {4}.

Strictly connected to this problem is the need for the students to achieve a professional competence. This means that the school reform should consider the importance to create {5} and support professional training courses, stages and temporary direct working experiences {6} in a real working contest{7}. As for the third point, I completely agree with Prof.Collins' view about the need for major investiments in school equipment. They should mainly consist in {8} the purchase of computers, of techincal equipment in order to create modern scientific and linguistic laboratories as well as new and updated libraries.

I wish to close my letter with a doubt which might require further reflections on this delicate subject. {9} My personal doubt is about the risk of giving birth to a school system too little sensitive towards students' personality{10} and too little concerned about their emotive sphere {11}.

Yours faithfully,

S.P.