Students must be accountable for their education

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Accountability in education is essential for student success and the overall effectiveness of the education system. It boost student effort, fosters responsibility, teaching students that their actions have consequences, which prepare them for future endeavours. It develops critical skills like time management, as students learn to prioritise and allocate time efficiently. Through accountability, students are encouraged to engage actively, leading to deeper comprehension and critical thinking.

Additionally, accountability builds resilience, helping students persevere through challenges. It prepares them for real-world scenarios by fostering a growth mindset and ethical behaviour, which are vital for personal and professional success. Accountability enhances teacher-student collaboration and enables educators to accurately measure progress and growth, allowing them to adapt teaching methods to individual needs. Effective strategies include setting clear expectations, regular assessments, enforcing deadlines, peer accountability, reflective exercises, and open communication, individualised approaches, emphasising learning over grades, celebrating achievements, and involving parents. Ultimately, accountability equips students to become responsible, engaged, and resilient lifelong learners ready to contribute meaningfully to society.

Tyner and Petrilli (2020) argue that student effort and accountability enhance personalised, competency-based education. Behavioural economist Dan Ariely’s experiment demonstrated that students who set their own deadlines with consequences performed better than those with no deadlines, highlighting the importance of self-imposed accountability. While personalised learning offers increased student choice and flexibility, it requires effective accountability mechanisms to be successful. The authors advocate for schools to implement tools like meaningful grading standards and high-quality exams, which are crucial for encouraging student effort. Schools should embrace their role in holding students accountable to foster hard work and progress.

In the context of extrinsic motivation and student accountability, teachers and principals can establish a reward system to encourage students to take responsibility for their schoolwork.

Teachers need to hold students accountable for their actions, but students must also learn to hold themselves accountable. It is equally important for teachers to demonstrate accountability to their students by modelling the behaviour they wish to see. While student accountability boosts student effort, it is too complex for teachers to manage alone. Principals and school leadership are crucial components of the school accountability system, setting intentional policies, ensuring resources are available, and providing real support and connections for everyone involved.

M STEWART-NELSON