**TL;DR - The Prime Function of schools is to create well-rounded members of society, not purely to find jobs** This is a very interesting opinion as I think most people, post schooling, wish they were taught more ‘life-skills’ at school. You often hear people say “school should have taught me how to find a job” or “how to file tax returns”. However we seem to just forget the years we were taught to read, write, contribute, learn and become valued members of society. Schools can’t teach you everything. Many children who are in school now will end up working in jobs that don’t yet exist. I think to say that schools prime function should be to help students find jobs would eradicate the hard work done through most primary schools. School teaches you abilities such as social skills, helps you find and learn about subjects you have interest in, and aids you in qualifications that can help you in the future. This statement, to me, paints quite a bleak view of school. This doesn’t mean schools shouldn’t, when approaching leaving age, hold classes on the job market and CV making - but this isn’t its prime function!

The prime function of schooling should be the provision of secondary socialisation and equipping young people with the skills necessary to cohabit amongst other adults in society. Whilst the importance of finding a career is something that schools should and do offer, it should not be the primary focus. Schools are a key agent of secondary socialisation and as a result, should be focusing on the overall development of children into adults. This is an important, character-defining time, and to focus on careers that do not define them is futile. Developing hobbies and interests, like sports, music and arts whilst at school allows for young people to determine who they are and what they like. An emphasis on "life skills", like reading, writing, cooking, and to an extent being computer literate, would be a more appropriate stance to take, and during the learning of these skills, young people can start to determine where they would want to continue these interests in a potential career. Neglecting this in favour of a careers-focused stance can be extremely limiting, and can create regretful adults that didn't have the space to explore their interests as a child and don't have time as working adults to do this. This stance is reflective of the society that we are in now, in which groups of young people are unable to find careers that satisfy their needs and desires. This leaves people either hopping aimlessly from job to job, or stuck in a job they don't necessarily like but stay in because of the security. The education system as it stands is not adequately equipped to support the needs of those whose careers are untraditional. To contend that school serves as a precursor to a job reinforces this capitalist narrative that we are born to serve capitalism, and doesn't offer us a chance to develop as human beings.

For later education, it is not the primary job of a school to teach children how to be good and moral people. That should be the role of parents. Early school should equip you with essential skills of reading, writing and maths and give socialisation, while later education should prepare you for the world of work, in my opinion

Well, that should definitely be their primary directive. But school should equip kids with some other things too. For example, they should have a thorough understanding of the tax system. They should know when to call 911 vs when its safe to tough it out. They should all have a thorough understanding of fallacies, and how to avoid and expose them. There's lots of tasks that school would be especially good at that they're not doing. Oh, but this insane practice where we waste MASSIVE amounts of time on impractical shit? I went through like 12 years of social studies and I still don't know shit about America. It wasn't a good use of my time.