Education as “a scam” is a perceived mindset commonly expressed by some individuals who assume that acquisition of knowledge and training in educational institutions is a complete deceit, waste of time, money and resources.
Why? Because most of them, after going through the four walls of an institution, find it difficult to secure white collar jobs despite studying professional courses. For instance, a medical student of 7 critical years in a Nigerian university, could end up working as a dispatch rider due to the limited opportunities in the country. Yes, it's pathetic but blame that on the government!
In universities, lecturers, in bid to boost the morale of students, will often tell them that they can work anywhere with their degree regardless of studying a non professional course. Meanwhile in reality and much to the student's detriment, the job opportunities are only limited to teaching jobs in which they only get paid peanuts. Again, blame that on the government!
Furthermore, it is believed that the knowledge received in academic institutions in most cases do not really come in handy in the outside world. For instance, some say that the solutions to finding “dy/dx” are not the solutions to real life problems like; unemployment, hunger, insecurity, corruption, to mention a few. So, these individuals feel swindled, thereby drawing the conclusion that “Education is a scam”. And honestly, I can't really blame them.
But before hastily jumping into such conclusions, have we ever stopped to ask ourselves, “What really is Education?“ Is education only limited to the knowledge we acquire formally in institutions? Well, let's find out:
According to Wikipedia,
"Education is the process of facilitating learning , or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values ,
morals , beliefs , habits , and personal development."
In addition to this, I'd like to quote Will Durant;
"Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance."
Also, in the words of Brigham Young;
“Education is the power to think clearly, the power to act well in the world's work and the power to appreciate life.”
And in my view;
Education is not merely the knowledge we acquire from schooling but what we learn from life experiences, unlearning ignorance, teaching ourselves during our alone time and how we apply that knowledge in our daily lives.
Which is why like Mark Twain once said;
“I would never let my schooling interfere with my education.”
There's no doubt that education in one way or the other, has made positive impacts in our lives and in our personal development as a whole. Thanks to education, we've become wiser, smarter and better than before.
So now, that brings us back to the question; "IS EDUCATION A SCAM??" My answer is NO!
Education was not, is not, has never and will never be a scam! So we simply shouldn't just view from one angle of perspective and induce a generalized conception of education. That would only make us uneducated.
More reason why I firmly believe education is not a scam is that, without education, we would still be living in primeval times. If man never had the intuition of thinking, discovering and learning new things, humanity would still remain in ignorance today and the remarkable innovations, evolutions as well technologies we're currently benefiting today would never have existed in the first place.
In as much as schooling is important, education is likewise. So let's be careful not to misconcept the both of them.
Matter of fact, I believe that the actual scam is attending an academic institution and leaving uneducated. That's why many people are still in the dark. They fail to educate themselves outside their context.
Moreover, let's also remember that the main purpose of education is the integral development of a person and the society in which people are aware of their rights and duties. So, education is pretty much a necessity of life and a vital part of growing up.
With all things considered, Nelson Mandela certainly wasn't capping when he said; “EDUCATION IS THE MOST POWERFUL WEAPON WHICH YOU CAN USE TO CHANGE THE WORLD.“ And my candid advice to you, is to keep educating yourself, be it formally or informally, at home or in school because YOU can change the world someday!
P.S. This blog is my response to the #hivelearners community weekly posting topics on the edition titled “IS EDUCATION A SCAM?” (I know I'm late 😪 but it's better late than never 🙂).
THANKS FOR READING, DO ENJOY A GREAT WEEKEND AHEAD! ❤️🤗