EDUCATION - THE PROVIDER OF THE VISION/BUILDER OF THE FUTURE

Not having wings has not prevented us from achieving flight.

For probably most people, having 'a good education' is or can be one of the most effective means of escaping a life of poverty and drudgery. 'A good education' not only helps a person to dream of a better life, but it can also bestow on that person the confidence to have other dreams which take him/her onto other levels, where the focus on 'self' can be extended to or be replaced with a focus on 'others.'

I am reminded of the Aga Khan Foundation, which has become a renown foundation for helping people in lesser developed countries in Africa and other regions, including building and running hospitals.

So, if you are not blessed, or, as others might consider it, cursed, with the privilege of being born in a filthy rich family, who can set you up to have a life of prosperity or luxury, your next best chance of having such a life could be dependent on your chances of being provided with and taking maximum advantage of 'a good education.'

The more aspiring poor people of the world, whether they are living in the Caribbean, the Americas, Asia, the Far East, Africa or the Middle East, are well aware of this fact.  It is not surprising, therefore, that the aspiring poor will do all they can to provide their children with 'a good education' and invest in their future, knowing that, if their children are able to realize the parents' plans for their future, the whole family could also benefit.  The children are the family's future and a good education offers everybody a better chance of having a better future

The importance of education for all countries, even if some countries might not fully appreciate and prioritise it, is not to be underestimated.  Education can either be used to maintain the social, religious, political and cultural status quo, or it can be used to transform and change society to make it more reflective of new ideas, visions and realities.  Education is therefore capable of being used to control and restrict the organic growth of a society, or it can be used to facilitate and empower societal changes. We can see such positive changes taking place, eg, when women are encouraged to have equal access to education, to be educated with men, and when they are allowed to shed anachronistic 'gender-specific roles', which then release this untapped and under-developed potential of female citizens.

It really is the case that, looking at a country's educational system, one should be able to have a view about the kind of society it evolves in and is sustaining. Whether it is focusing on the past or on the future; whether it wants its citizens to limit its citizens to being the receptor of old and untested ideas and dogmas, or encourage them to become the creators of new ideas and developers of old ones.

The management or manipulation of education systems, if not the education itself, has become more overtly political. In Britain, eg, the education system, like those other key strategic services of health, housing,employment, social care and public security, has, for decades, been a source of 'political football' between the 3 biggest political parties, as each of them try to get these services to reflect their differential political ideologies.

The current Government in Britain has recently expressed its intention to make every school in the country into an academy. This means that it wants a complete system whereby all schools are directly funded by the Department of Education, and is individually or as part of a group of schools, overseen by a charitable trust, with the individual school's headteacher or principal having day-to-day control over the school. This system will exclude the local education authority having any say in the school's affairs, thereby removing that local accountability structure. So, we can see this as an example of how one political party is using education to realize its Conservative vision of 'less government', by weakening the local government and local 'democratic' structures, and replacing them with a model of education which seems to favour the local provider of the education, but with the government paying for it as the commissioner of the service.

Of course, as well as enabling the student to acquire excellence in the standard curriculum subjects 'a good education' should also provide the student with the knowledge of what defines his country and a collective perception of what it means to be a citizen.

Probably more than anything else, 'a good education' should equip its recipient with the intellectual capacity and prowess to question everything and nurture his/her dreams of visualising and creating a better future for all. 

The ultimate manifestation of 'a good education' is in its social and intellectual expression, whether it enables you to transform your environment and inherited realities - be they one of poverty, oppression, restricted visions, or whether it perpetuates your submission or subjugation to them.

Endeavour to see what you are observing and not what you are told you will or should see.

OWOHROD