In recent years a lot of people have come out to say different nasty things about the school system, saying it's a scam and irrelevant in our world today, and can I really blame them for saying those things? My answer is no, because come to think of it, gone are the days when owning a degree was more or less like an automatic ticket to acquiring jobs and earning decent incomes. Fast forward to the present day, the reverse is the case, and most people who graduated with a degree hardly make use of their certificate. With all these happenings, don't I think it's still worth it to have a degree in our world today, and am I using what I learned at school at all?
To start with, it's worth noting that I strongly believe in the power of education and what owning a degree means in our world. While it's understandable that most organizations don't really employ you because of your certificate anymore but because of the connections you've got or the soft skills you possess, that doesn't mean owning a degree isn't important. In fact, I think aside from the in-depth knowledge acquired from learning extensively, what most organizations look out for and why they employ degree holders is because they know those individuals have, one way or another, shown how committed they can be to a course, given the fact that they stuck to learning for at least four years, and when you employ them in your organization, you're rest assured that they'll at least replicate the same commitments, given their track record.
School is never a scam, and those who alter that statement often go on to regret it in the near future, especially when they don't acquire any form of education, as it goes on to make them irrelevant and dependent on degree holders to help them manage their wealth (if they ended up being wealthy from their business or craft). And they're even vulnerable to getting scammed or done dumb by their educated employees who handle their finances, taxes, and the like, so putting all of these into consideration is why I say owning a degree is still important.
Regardless of the career path you chose, be it craft, soft or hard skills, business, or whatever, that isn't a reason to not get a degree. In fact, in my opinion, when you possess any of the above and still have a degree, it's more like having a double factor authentication in the sense that regardless of what happens to your business, skills, and the like, you can easily walk into your drawer, dust your degree certificate, and go in search of a job. But when your skills become irrelevant, or business goes down and you've got no alternative, like a degree certificate that can help you restart afresh, surviving would become difficult.
Talking about if I've applied anything I've learned in school in the past week or so, my answer is definitely yes. In fact, being able to write these prompts and share my take on this subject matter is a testament to the importance of school. Without me going to school to learn how to read and write and enhance my critical thinking and problem-solving skills via different subjects, I wouldn't be here to write a response to this prompt, nor would I have the capability to think deeply enough to state my opinion in the ways I'm stating it now. Aside from these, I'm a teacher by profession, so I teach students in schools. I also have some online classes I hold to prepare students for various examinations on a weekly basis, so in a nutshell, I'm using the knowledge I acquired in school.
I understand there are lots of loopholes that need to be looked into and because there's room for improvement, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't get a degree. What should be done is making sure courses taught in our higher institutions are those that are relevant in our world today and also creating more job opportunities for graduates so many degree certificates won't be earned and become useless due to unemployment. If all of these can be done and graduates are handsomely paid, I'm certain a lot of people would want to get a degree again.
But without that, it'll be quite difficult to convince anyone, including children of nowadays who'll tell you that they want to be fraudsters when they grow up. Can you blame them? No, because fraudsters live life to the fullest, while degree holders who work diligently are working from hand to mouth.
All photos are taken and edited on canva.