Topic 3: In many countries, truancy * is a worrying problem for both parents and educators. What are the causes of truancy, and what may be the effects on the child and the wider community?
(* truancy = the situation when a child pretends to go to school but in fact goes somewhere else, for example to play unsupervised. The verb is ‘to play truant from school.’
Model Essay:
Truancy is an activity which some children regard as amusing or even exciting, but which can have serious impacts on their future and on society as a whole. I can identify two main causes, and three broad effects, which we will describe now.
Perhaps the main cause is a sense of boredom or frustration with school itself, for instance with the content, pace or organization of the lessons. This can be seen in the way that pupils often avoid certain lesson but not others, suggesting that specific subjects or teachers are the personal grievance. Another factor may frequently be peer pressure, meaning that pupils feel obliged to play truant because some of their peers or friends are doing this. We can see that the child’s desire to be popular among a peer group may be higher than the motivation to study and progress.
Turning to possible effects, the tendency to underperform academically is probably the most serious impact on a pupil’s life, leading to poor exam results and weak career progression in later life. Another effect may be the temptation to participate in petty crime or antisocial behavior while the child is unsupervised, potentially opening a pathway into more serious crimes later on. For example, a child who commits vandalism may progress to theft and robbery, a trend we see in some major South American cities such as Rio or Buenos Aires. This issue of crime is probably the third major effect, and one that impacts on the community as a whole. For instance, children playing truant may cause damage, drop litter, intimidate elderly people and commit other acts which spread a sense of instability and anxiety, even though the financial impact is low.
To sum up, the causes of truancy generally relate to lack of challenge or peer pressures, while the effects are seen in individual under-achievement and in minor crime against the community as a whole.
(315 words)
Examiner’s notes
This candidate has produced a logical and clear to read essay which answers the Cause>Effect Task to a Band 9 standard. The introduction tells me that she has identified the essay type, and advises me to expect to read about two causes and three effects. The main body uses tentative language effectively (‘Perhaps the main cause . . . Another factor may frequently be . . . may be higher than . . .’ etc) which adds a sense of objectivity. The second paragraph is introduced clearly (‘Turning to . . .’) and the ideas are separated helpfully (‘Another effect . . . the third major effect . . .’) showing that the ‘three effects’ described in the introduction are being explained. The examples given are rather simple, but they certainly illustrate the main ideas in a concise way. The vocabulary shows a good command of advanced material (eg ‘sense of boredom’ ‘tendency to underperform’ ‘participate in’ ‘commit acts’) and the impression is that the candidate has read a lot of general commentary in the press or media to help develop this. The conclusion summarizes the main ideas, and expresses them without repeating directly from the main body (eg ‘boredom>lack of challenge’ ‘underperform>under-achievement’ ‘petty crime>minor crime’) which shows a wide range of active vocabulary.