IELTS essay sample: Television’s role in education

IELTS essay topic

Some people say that television is useful in education, while others say it is useful only for entertainment. Do you agree or disagree?

Sample response

Television redefined entertainment. From toddlers to seniors in their 70s and 80s everyone enjoys sitting in front of the idiot box. In addition to entertaining people, television keeps them informed. There are educational channels and twenty four hour news channels. They operate with the objective of providing education rather than entertainment. Therefore I certainly agree with the argument that television is useful in education.

Television brought entertainment to our living room. There are numerous channels and numerous programs to keep us entertained for hours on end. Actually, a lot of us are addicted to television and now it is nearly impossible to find a home that doesn’t have a television set. Television’s role as a major entertainment tool is well-documented.

Television also plays an important role in disseminating education. There are several channels dedicated to education. They provide information about the latest findings in the field of science, technology archeology and literature. News channels keep us informed of the happenings around us. Since television takes advantage of both audio and video it can have a profound impact on viewers. This makes learning easier. For example, when students watch scientific experiments being performed on the TV, they will be able to understand it better. Learning the theory from textbooks does not have such a profound impact.

Television also makes learning fun. Since television programs use tools such as multimedia and animation, they manage to capture the attention of students for long. Channels like Discovery and National Geographic have played a major role in spreading awareness about wildlife, history, geography and natural phenomena. Watching a science program on Discovery Channel is a lot more interesting than reading textbooks on biology or physics.

To conclude, television has played an important role in imparting education. It provides entertainment as well, but it is wrong to treat it as a medium that provides only entertainment.