The System of Streaming

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To begin with I would like to explain what the system of streaming means. The system of streaming is separating pupils by academic ability into groups for all subjects or certain classes and curriculum within a school. It may be referred as tracking. In a streaming system, the entire school population is determined to classes according to whether the students' overall achievement is above average, normal, or below average (A-, B-, C-, D-streams). Students attend academic classes only with students whose overall academic achievement is the same as their own. Students in academically advanced streams study higher mathematics, more foreign languages, and literature. Students in less academic streams acquire professional skills such as cosmetology, or business skills, such as typing or bookkeeping. Students usually can’t change the stream even if the student has a demonstrated interest and ability in the subject. Streaming was once popular in English-speaking countries, but is less used now. Strong streaming systems formed the basis of education in England and Wales until the 1970s, and in Northern Ireland until 2009. It was reflected in grammar schools, secondary modern schools and secondary technical schools where children could be admitted according to their results in 11+ exams. Germany still uses a strongly streamed system. And weak streaming systems have been used in American schools. As for me, I’m glad that streaming is almost not used nowadays, at least in our country and English-speaking countries, and 11+ exams were removed, because I absolutely disagree with all aspects of the system of streaming. But before arguing against streaming I’d like to present others - supporting points of view on it. Proponents of streaming say that it has several important strengths. A major advantage is that it allows teachers to better direct lessons toward the specific
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