"SHOW ME THE MONEY!"

It is not a secret that educational systems around the world are such huge businesses; Colombia is linked of course to all these interests. When I think about standardized tests, I cannot help thinking that the purpose of all those exams is indeed monetary. How it is possible that an educational system should be tested at least four different times during a 12-years academic period? This amount of tests taking means two things to me, one, as I already mention, money for the people behind the system, also because not only students are the ones who take standardized tests, teachers must take tests in order to obtain a higher status In the scale; and two, the lack of quality in education. I say the lack of quality education because if an educational system were optimum and with high quality should not be necessary to test so many times in order to check if people are getting the goals. In other words, if we know that our educational system is excellent taking so many tests will be not necessary. But no, we cannot trust in our educational system. Nevertheless, it is necessary to grade students and standardized tests are great tools for teachers as they set a clear path to follow when grading them and make measurement easier. Everything in life has its pros and cons, in sum standardized test are not all bad, in fact they are very useful; the problem is that they have been increased just for the sake of making money.