In contemporary times, almost as a cultural practice, education
has been elevated to the level of an initiation rite into the modern
world. With the aid of formal educational training, people acquire the
skills of reading and writing. It is obvious that literacy, the ability
to read and write, has become a requisite for coping with numerous
challenges of modern times. As a strategy for ensuring that no child is
denied the opportunity of acquiring formal education, not sending a
child to school is a criminal offence in some parts of the world,
especially in the West. In addition, some governments assist their
citizens to acquire formal education by either subsidising the cost or
making it available at no cost (at the basic level, at least).
It
is impossible to fit into the modern times if one does not go to
school. Consequently, education is a necessity, not a luxury. People's
attitude to education in contemporary time appears to suggest, in
fidelity to Platonism, that it is better to be unborn than to be
uneducated. The demand for education in different parts of the world is
unarguably on daily increase. People make numerous sacrifices to acquire
education. Parents are willing to give all they have in order to see
their children through school. Some people travel to foreign countries
in order to acquire quality educational training. Acquiring formal
education has become one of the greatest priorities in life today.
However,
despite the wide acceptance formal education has gained all over the
world, one of the most significant questions about education that is
often not asked is, "What is the relevance of education to practical
life?' In other words, to what extent is education helpful in addressing
practical life challenges? This question needs to be asked because the
expected impacts of education are absent is the life of many educated
people. One of the factors that speak very eloquently on this is that
education has continuously remained unable to improve the standard of
living of numerous graduates.
It is imperative to remark that
education is a means to an end, but not an end in itself. The
implication of this is that education is a process that leads to the
making of a product. The process is incomplete without the product. It
is the product that gives value to the means. The quality of the process
can be inferred from the quality of the product. As a means, education
is incomplete without the end of the process. This end is the purpose it
(education) is designed to serve (under ideal situation). Let us
justify our claim that the expected impacts of education are absent is
the life of many educated people by examining a very sensitive aspect of
life of educated people, their finances.
How many educated people
are truly financially successful? Most graduates struggle all through
life to make ends meet, but to no avail. There are numerous people who
graduated from tertiary institutions (even at the top of the class), but
who are far below many people with lower educational training (academic
intelligence and scholarly ability) than theirs in the ladder of
financial success. Perhaps, financial struggles and crises are worse
among educated people. Most educated people struggle all through their
working years merely to make ends meet, but to no avail, and end as
liabilities during their retirement.
The inability of education to
assist graduates in managing real life challenges is rooted in the fact
that most people are ignorant of the purpose of education. Why do we go
to school? Why should people go to school? What is the purpose of
education? What is the rationale of education? What are the objectives
of education? Why should parents send their children to school?
Education is one of the most abused or, rather, misunderstood human
experiences. Unless the purpose of education is understood and
clarified, the continuity of its abuse (by most people) will remain
inevitable. Many people go to school for the wrong reasons. In addition,
most parents send their children to school for the wrong reasons. Most
people have erroneous conceptions about the objectives of education.
It
is imperative to remark that this problem is rooted in the fact that
the major incentive for going to school in the earliest days of its
inception in different parts of the world was that it was a ticket to
prosperity. This was possible then because employment opportunities
abound for educated people then. But things have changed, and very
significantly. In most parts of the world today, there is high level of
unemployment among educated people. Thus, education does not guarantee
financial success anymore. In fact, education has become a major cause
of poverty, considering the fact that it has no provision for instilling
the knowledge of wealth creation principles in students.
It is
high time the purpose of education is reconsidered. The idea of going to
school in order to acquire certificate should be denounced, if the
training will improve the life of educated people. The idea of going to
school in order to prepare for gainful employment should also be
denounced because there are limited employment opportunities for
unlimited graduates. If school prepares graduates for employment, but
there are limited employment opportunities for unlimited graduates, it
means that school prepares students for unemployment. This is why the
conception that school merely prepares students for gainful employment
is unacceptable.
The ideal purpose of education is to facilitate
an integral development of the human person - the intellectual, moral,
physical, social, spiritual, psychical and psychological dimensions of
man. Going to school should facilitate the optimum development of all
the aspects of the human person. An ideal educational system should not
isolate any aspect of man in the training process, nor consider some
aspects more important than others. Anything short of this is an
aberration, and is unacceptable.
Every educational process should
be able to assist students to develop their latent potential. Any
educational process that does not fulfill this objective is useless.
When the mind is developed, it is able to identify and solve problems
for humanity and, consequently, be compensated with reward. Money is
merely the reward for solving problems. Any graduate who cannot solve
problems in the society lacks the capacity for wealth creation. This is a
fact most graduates are ignorant of.
Education will assist
graduates to become happy and fulfilled in life if it is structured to
facilitate the optimum development of their minds. If this is done,
education will equip graduates with the requisite skills to survive the
economic battles and challenges of real life. It is very painful to
remark that education has remained unable to serve practical purpose
because most of the things the school system teach students are things
they do not need to survive in the real life. In other words, most
students spend years in school learning things that will not be useful
to them when school days are over. The crux of this deficiency in the
educational system is that the people who are most concerned in the
educational sector are ignorant of its existence.
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