Originally Posted by
Badly Ironed Shirt
If the question was "Should all kids do exams?" - then I would say no. Teachers should be able to spot the non-academic kids from the academic kids by the teenage years. Instead of railroading those kids into exams which, unfortunately, they will very likely fail and feel shit about, those kids should be steered towards learning skills that they enjoy, and skills that will provide them with opportunities once they leave school. No kid should leave school feeling like they have failed. But, that's not the question being asked here.
Are we putting too much pressure on kids? I would say no, in fact many parents seem happy to provide their kids with excuses for not studying "life's too short, what good are exams anyway" rather than the opposite way around. In fact, I would argue that the kids that feel under pressure are mostly creating that pressure for themselves - because some of these kids really really care about their futures. And, that is no bad thing.