IELTS Writing Task 2: brainstorm then organise

I asked my students to brainstorm ideas for the question below.

Families who send their children to private schools should not be required to pay taxes that support the state education system.
To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

Here are their ideas for a 'completely disagree' answer:

• difficult to calculate the tax reduction
• more government staff would be required for this process
• we all pay for public services that we may not need e.g. police
• poorer people would pay more tax than wealthy people
• state schools benefit the whole of society
• high quality state education leads to equal opportunities for all
• a well-educated workforce is the key to a prosperous nation
• companies need educated staff
• we should all be happy to contribute to public services

After brainstorming, we need to organise these ideas so that we have two paragraphs. There seem to be two main themes in the ideas above:

1. Reasons why we think the idea would not work, or would be unfair.
2. Reasons why everyone should pay taxes that support state education.

Next week I'll show you how we used these ideas to write a full essay.

Comments

[BN]

Hi all,
Please read through my essay and correct my mistakes.
Thank you

Nowadays, some people send their children to private school to get better education quality. Those people may have to pay higher tuition fee than those whose children go to public school. Therefore, they should not pay taxes that support state education system. I completely disagree with this view and I believe that all people should contribute equally to public education.

There are different reasons that everyone should pay taxes that support state education. Firstly, state schools benefit the whole of society. The higher quality state education, the more equal opportunities for all people as the gap between private school and public school apparently disappears. A second reason is that companies always need educated staff. Enrolling the private school might not be affordable for all families, thus public schools play an important role in providing working market an appropriate number of educated people. It is certain that a well-educated workforce is the key to a prosperous nation. Finally, we all pay for the public services that we might not need, for instance, police service. Therefore, we should all happy to contribute to public education system.

It will be unfair or it will not work if people are allowed not to pay taxes that support public education. Poorer people may have to pay more taxes than wealthy people. At least poorer people have to pay tax for public education. Furthermore, it will be difficult to calculate tax reduction and more government staff may be required for this process. As a result, more burdens will be put on to the government budget.

In conclusion, people should pay taxes that support public education to create an equitable education environment.

[sami]

Plz GIVE ME THE BAND FOR THIS ESSAY ..

it is sometimes argued that people who embrace their children with education from high quality private institutes should be exempt from paying tax for state schools. however, i disagree with this idea.

THe argument in the favour of the idea of exemption of tax who do not using state education system would be that affluent families are not taking state benifits so there would not be any point of paying for the services from which they are not getting any advantage. however, it seems to me a short-sighted view. if privilaged people were not required to pay off their tax for the state school, it would have a destructive effect on country 's prosperity. which may lead to unsustainable and unequitable economy system in respective nation. apart from that , there would be needed a more government staff to handle the data of non-taxpayers. hence, it will be immensly difficult to calculate the precise amount of tax reduction. finally, there are so many people who are not using any specific public service but still they are paying for it sucha as a police service .

there are number of reasons why i think everyone should be obliged to pay tax for state school . Firstly, states school benifits the whole society in evarious manners. it gives the oppurtunity for all students irrespective of their background to learn skills and translate knowledge into their own thoughts and ideas as well as recognising their potential in desired feild. fir instance , many students usually come from disadvantaged background can access to high quality education in state schools so they could excell their skills and could become a futuristic doctor,scientist or engineer. finally , subsidizing the state schools with the help of tax money would benifit to raise nprosperous nation by generating a well - educated workforce.

in conclusion, everyone should be happy to contribute in public services . so it would benifit the whole society to make the country best place to live in.

[Aria]

Hi Simon

I have a question for you.

Is that OK to have just "firstly" and "secondly" without "finally" at the end of paragraph, because we want to fit that paragraph within the 90-100 words? or it can down our score?

Thank you for your latest reply

[sami]

j

[Narayan , Australia]

great job mate... I liked the way you wrote an essay...

[Ivy]

Dear Simon,
To write within the allotted time, I found myself tend to use a lot of informal descriptions. I am not sure if it will affect my score. Here is my full essay. I am expecting you to correct and mark my work, but I would like to hear your opinion about the use of language.

The families that have the capacity to pay for private education have been arguing that they should immunise the responsibility to support the public schooling. In another word, they claim that they are entitled to pay less tax if they choose to send their children to private schools. I found this proposal is nonsense and ridiculous.

Firstly, the idea of allowing the rich to pay less would enlarge the gap between the rich and the poor. The majority of families choose private education because they are capable of paying more fees and willing to pay for the service they get. If just because they choose fee-paying schools, they can get rid of part of their tax responsibilities, they can also claim that they should be able to immunise the tax for public hospitals and other public services. If that is the case, the poor will get poorer because they have to pay more tax to keep all the public services running smoothly.

Secondly, children from social economic backgrounds are sent to public schools, and they deserve a fair go when competing with their better off counterparts. Public education needs a certain amount of funding to maintain a competitive quality education. However, the state schools’ funding would be cut if less people pay taxes, and the facilities and personalised student supporting service will be heavily impacted on. As a result, public schooling will be more struggling with the original small funding being cut or taken away. The future generations of disadvantage families would only be in a more disadvantage situation.

In conclusion, the proposal of legalising the wealthy group to pay less tax is damaging the balance of economic equality which is tax all about.

[Razaq]

Please comments on this essay. Any person can comment, I will appreciate your time.
Thanks,
Razaq

Children education is one of the most important fads in every individual life. Although, there are some social setbacks in social status of families. It has been noted that every parent is trying their best for their children's education and life training. Now a day there is emerging trend for private schools and rich people think that their children can learn better in private school. Now the question arises that parents who are sending their children to private schools should not pay taxes to government. While I agree partially to this idea, however, I strongly deny this statement.

Government are collecting taxes from people and than spending on people in different forms. One of the forms of return is children's education. There are huge benefits for this system. Firstly, there is equality in society. In social society every citizen has equal right and they have equal opportunity to grow. The system runs by collaboration efforts of each individual. If rich people who are not sending their children to public and stop paying taxes than it would be difficult for state to run these public institutions and the gap will increase for rich and poor people. Rich people can get the opportunity to have education and poor people don’t. This will have overall bad impact on society. Secondly, stopping the tax from rich people will also create complication is tax collection system. Mostly system are designed for whole community and countries not only for some people. It would not be easy to implement for small number of people. Also, taxes paid by people are not solely spend on education, there are certain other facilities which are run by these tax collection. For example, police services are one of the critical services which are provided to society.

On the other hand, there are some persuasive arguments in favour. To start with, people have strong belief if they are not using the services for which they are paying taxes why should they pay taxes. This should be unfair for these people. Also, the leval of education in private intuitions are better than public schools due to many factors which every person cannot deny. Getting education from private institution will indirectly benefit the society in the long run.

Keeping all the argument in consideration, it can be concluded, imposing taxes on whole society outweigh the benefits. Public schools will not only provide the equal opportunity to society but also eliminate the discrimination in poor and rich students. In long run this will have huge benefit to society.

[Van Hai]

Families who send their children to private schools should not be required to pay taxes that support the state education system.
To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

In these days, while some people believe that parents sending their children to private schools should be required to pay taxes that is contributed to the national education, Others think that paying taxes is compulsory for only families whose children go to public schools. However, from my point ofview, I agree with the former idea for the following reasons.

It is certainly true that putting a tax on both private and public schools is an important contributing factor to the finance for education.Thanks to this fund, governments can conduct different proposals and do the research with the aim to innovate and develop their education. Were it not for this money, education staff would be unable to manage to provide with high-technological facilities, materials for teaching and study.

Another point to consider is that a high-quality nationneeds to supply citizens with equal opportunities in all areas, not except for eduction. In other words, that public schools requires their parents to pay taxes follows that private schools needs to adopt that policy, although tuition fees of the private school tend to be higher.

On the other hand, a great deal of taxes put forward by goverments put the pressure on citizens’s finance. Some people find it hard to manage with their life, while they spend a part of income paying taxes, whichleads to the poverty. Furthermore, sometimes people are required to pays some taxes that they may not need.

In conclusion, In order to develop the national education comprehensively, Both private and public schools suggest parents should pay taxes for the state education.

[Kiranmai]

Hi,
Please take time to look at and comment on the easy.

Nowadays, Most Parents prefer sending their children to private school rather than public to get better quality of education. Although they were not availing the public educational services, I believe that these parents should also Contribute to the better facilities and quality of education by paying tax to the state education system.

One of the main reasons why everyone should pay taxes that support state education is state schools benefit the whole of society. Companies need well educated staff. A well-educated workforce is the key to a prosperous nation. The higher the quality of state education the more are the equal opportunities for all citizens as it brings down the gap between private
and public schools. In site most of the parents prefer sending their children to private schools working too hard to afford high fee structure of private schools is only to offer better standard of education where the Public schools lack it. In developed countries there is no concept of private schools as state educational institutes offer the best education. Parents who are wealthy also send children to public schools as they are much satisfied with the quality of state education. To upgrade our public schools to the level private schools education and facilities, we all should be happy to contribute to state education system.

Firstly,Tax is been collected for overall development of a country and is not restricted to specific sector improvement. It would be unfair and difficult to allow people pay the tax reducing the tax for public education. Lots of calculation has to go in for such tax reduction and more government staff is required to carry out calculation process. As a result it would be extra burden on the state government. Secondly, Poor people may have to pay more taxes than wealthy people for state education system if such a law is enforced which
still worsen the condition of public education. Finally, when we all are expected to pay for all the other public services which we might not use, for instance Services like police, why can't we happily pay for improvement of state education system which helps in the building a prosperous nation.

In conclusion, I believe that all the people should continue to pay taxes to support public education and may this leads to bring down the gap between public and private schools.

[dr ahmad]

this was 28th june test for writing task 2 at british council lahore,pakistan...

people give too much value to artists (like musicians,painters and writers); even in this age of modern technology.

why you think is this?

is arts important to people's lives as science is?

[leuleu]

Dear Simon,
I'm from a developing country and this kind of topic sounds really unfamiliar to me. For ex, I do not know that public schools are free and also many other policies in developed countries. How can I solve this problem? Thank you very much!

[yazeed]

hello Simon!

i have recently attempted the general version of the exam and got 9 reading 8 speaking 6 writing 6.5 listening (7.5) overall ...apparently i could do better at the listening part but i am not sure about how to improve writing...I've been studying on my own only with the help of the material you provide. so, big thanks to that!

i just need a few tips to get band 8 in writing.pretty ambitious i know,but that's my goal :)