Education and Real Life Challenges

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In contemporary times, almost as a cultural practice, education has been elevated to an initiation rite into the modern world. With the aid of formal educational training, people acquire reading and writing skills. It is obvious that literacy, the ability to read and write, has become a requisite for coping with numerous challenges of modern times. To ensure that no child is denied the opportunity to acquire formal education, not sending a child to school is a criminal offense in some parts of the world, especially in the West. In addition, some governments assist their citizens in acquiring formal education by subsidizing the cost or making it available at no charge (at the primary level).

Education and Real Life Challenges 1

It is impossible to fit into modern times if one does not go to school. Consequently, education is a necessity, not a luxury. People’s attitude to education in contemporary times suggests, 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 increasing daily. People make numerous sacrifices to acquire an education. Parents are willing to give all they have to see their children through school. Some people travel to foreign countries to receive quality educational training. Acquiring formal education has become one of the most significant priorities in life today.

However, despite the wide acceptance formal education has gained worldwide, one of the most critical 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 in many educated people’s lives. One factor that speaks 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, not much. 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 is the purpose it (education) is designed to serve (under ideal situations). Let us justify our claim that education’s expected impacts are absent in many educated people’s lives by examining a susceptible aspect of the life of knowledgeable 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. Numerous people graduated from tertiary institutions (even at the top of the class) but far below many people with lower educational training (academic intelligence and scholarly ability) than those on the ladder of financial success. Perhaps financial struggles and crises are worse among educated people. Most educated people struggle 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 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 primary incentive for going to school in the earliest days of its inception in different parts of the world was a ticket to prosperity. This was possible then because employment opportunities abounded for educated people. But things have changed and vary significantly. In most parts of the world today, there is a high level of unemployment among educated people. Thus, education does not guarantee financial success anymore. Education has become a significant cause of poverty because it does not instill the knowledge of wealth creation principles in students.

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