Is Schooling Too Rigid?

Currently, all of the year 12 students are sitting some of the most intense tests of their lives so far. And with that, as a tutor, I have been encountered many times with students who try to extend themselves in ways which the marking guidelines only penalise, rather than rewarding students on their additional knowledge. Unfortunately, as I only want what's best for my students, I have had to, at times, tell them that what they write is incredibly interesting and insightful, however, it's not what is written in the syllabus. This raises the question of if schooling is too rigid; is the current schooling system in place in New South Wales encouraging rote learning rather than true understanding of concepts?

The most obvious case where this can be seen is in the English syllabi, wherein there is incredibly limited flexibility in what topics and texts can be studied, and even less flexibility in how sentences and paragraphs are structured and worded. I feel very strongly in my stance that currently NESA's syllabi are not cutting it and not preparing students for tertiary education and the workforce, and this is an issue which stems all the way to the top of the organisation.

I personally studied four units of English, and the Extension 1 and 2 syllabi are largely different to the Advanced syllabus which allows essentially zero room for creativity, new opinions, and experimentation with form and analysis. However, the Extension subjects allow for a students' personal voice to come through and honestly make English as a subject seem much more useful in delevoping critical thinking skills and understanding the importance of literature and its analysis in our lives. In talking to Paul Martin, the CEO of NESA when he visited my school in 2024 prior to the commencement of that years' HSC examinations, I aksed him why, as a four unit English student, I was still required to study the Advanced syllabus when it felt so basic and unimportant to my further study of English. His response was that NESA believed that the Advanced course provided a solid foundation of English study which the Extension courses do not provide. However, it is very clear to me that the Advanced course should not be offered to anybody, and that Extension 1 should be the baseline English subject as it encourages students to actually engage with their work and expand their knowledge base and skillset substantially.

Thus, I see no reason for the further regression of the English courses to continue, especially with the degradation of the Extension 2 course which has now completely scrapped any sense of personality left in it. By changing the HSC courses to ensure that they reward rather than penalise originality and interesting insights, we will be raising generations of creative, curious, and capable adults.