Education, primarily understood by the layman as the dispensation and acquisition of knowledge and skills, is a process involving a lot of complexities in its structure. These complexities have for decades been the basis of most people’s views on the subject. While some people perceive education, specifically formal education, as a process with a lot of complex structures, which is geared towards a single goal – making money, others also believe that the essence of education is enlightenment and a pathway to transformation.
Irrespective of the several notions surrounding the subject, education is without a doubt an indispensable part of society. Education is pervasive in character. It permeates every facet of human life; it is the ultimate impetus for shaping beliefs, ideas and actions, and processes of humans and their existence.
Education begins at home. Right from birth, we have all been groomed by our parents or guardians on basic life principles including communication, etiquette, beliefs and skills acquisition, norms, values, morals, and many others. It is not a coincidence that you greet the people you meet, lay your bed when you wake up in the morning, brush your teeth, eat a balanced diet, or practice personal hygiene. All these were taught and learned through a process called education.
Education goes beyond the dispensation and acquisition of knowledge to the grooming of individuals by developing their innate skills. That is basically how civilization came to be; most of the people who became great agents of change had their talents developed through education. For example, Edward Jenner and Louis Pasteur, the renowned doctors who revolutionized medicine in the 18th and 19th centuries through their development of the idea of vaccination, understudied great physicians of their day who coached them and developed their talents.
Education is basically the source of knowledge. Knowledge has to do with having the awareness of, understanding of, or information concerning certain facts or situations. Knowledge is a very essential cognitive process that sharpens the reasoning of individuals; it enables individuals to think critically and apply logical reasoning in dealing with problems. Constant application of logical reasoning and critical thinking skills helps to develop one’s creative skills and we all know for a fact that, all the revolutionary inventions the world has witnessed have their roots in creativity. We can therefore apply the concept of transitivity and conclude that knowledge is a source of invention and civilization and since education is a primary source of knowledge, education is a primary source of invention and civilization.
Our legal systems and principles which ensure that individuals toe certain lines were all established through education. Virtually all areas of the world’s systems, be it technological, economic, political, or even social, have the fingerprints of education all over them. Mobile phones which have made communication easier became a reality as a result of knowledge of electronics acquired through education.
Consequently, education is a core and fundamental part of human existence. It should be embraced by all as the outcome transcends barely the acquisition of knowledge to ignite solutions to everyday human challenges.
