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It's a fact of life that life itself isn't easy. There will be plenty of hurdles to overcome, whether it's to do with love, career or family and friends; so why not have some healthy competition in schools?

THE BENEFITS OF COMPETITION

1. Competition builds teamwork.

By working together to achieve something, most competitions mean we need to work effectively with other people. This improves our communication skills, our socialising skills and all round ability to understand and work with other people.

This is particularly true of sports competitions where the aim is to work together to win.

2. Competition creates success.

Working together and winning competitions creates an ethos of success and a desire for success. No-one likes to lose and a healthy competition can mean that pupils gain a taste for success and want more of it.

In the long run, once they leave education, the hope is that this desire continues and gives them the edge to succeed in life and in their career, business and everything else they come across.

3. Competition makes us improve.

If we lose, we want to improve and if we win, we want to make sure we retain our title. Competition means that we're constantly trying to improve and better ourselves which doesn't happen in a stalemate situation.

THE PROBLEMS WITH COMPETITION

1. Competitions mean failure.

The nature of competitions means that there are winners and losers. And the problem here is that no-one likes to lose.

2. Some people are set up to fail.

In our modern world where everyone succeeds, people are entered into competitions with no chance of success. This means that they will never willingly engage in challenges because of a fear of failure which becomes instilled in them.

3. Healthy competitions are difficult to organise.

In schools, it's difficult to organise a good competition where everyone feels some success, even the losers. It's hard to include everyone and teachers will always struggle to ensure those students who are always on the outside are given the chance of success.

CONCLUSION

This is a difficult argument to make a decision about, but I would to say I think that healthy competition is good for everyone. Competitions fail when they are badly organised and only give the minority a chance of success. In this sense, competition can be either good or bad, but the idea of competition, if executed properly, can only be positive.

Learn more about this author, Ben Hughes.
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