Essay on The Importance of Education

From the improvement of society to personal growth and improvement, education is quintessential and crucial for many such things. Whether it’s formal education, also referred to as academics, or be it life lessons and the more unconventional lessons that a person needs to learn, education has always been a very important part of human evolution.

Education offers us a guide to approach our lives systematically as well as gain a better perspective towards our lifestyle, society, community, and everything else around us. Any educated person is a great source of knowledge for society. Proper education aims to improve a person’s understanding of the world around them.

That being said, the process of a person’s education starts at a tender age when they are still a child. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child also recognized education as a legal right of every child. Although, that is only good on paper. That is because education is still a privilege to many across India and the globe. Proper education is important for employment, self-improvement as well as a variety of other things crucial in human lives.

The Need For Proper Education

Many people simply cannot get educated because they do not have enough resources to access education. Not just that, some do not even have access to proper educational facilities at all.

UNESCO data also showed that over 258 million children and youth were out of school during the end of the year 2018. Those numbers constituted more than 129 million girls and over 58 million other primary school-goers’ age children.

While those numbers tell us about the ones who are not fortunate enough to access proper education, what is even more alarming is the fact that over 617 million children and adolescents who have access to proper education do not have the minimum proficiency levels in mathematics or even reading. That brings us to the need for proper education. In the next parts of this blog, that is exactly what we will discuss.

Education is important and it does not need to be stated. This article is about the importance of education in a person’s life and how it helps a person living in a society.

What Is Education?

Education can be defined in a wide variety of ways. People have their definitions of education, and that is not completely absurd. Education can be said to be the process through which an individual acquires knowledge about different subjects. The process may also involve a person imparting basic knowledge to another.

If we speak about the key features of education, it can be defined as a process where people:

• develops various life skills essential to daily living.
• learn about social norms, culture, and history.
• builds their sense of judgment and reasoning
• receives formal education in different subjects including mathematics, geography, chemistry, physics, etc.
• building a sense of morality and learning how to differentiate right from wrong.

It can be said that apart from knowledge, the goal of education is to help individuals to navigate through life and make significant contributions to society once they become older.

While there are various types of education, traditional schooling is one key form of formal education. People who have attended school and attained a higher level of education have better employment and earning opportunities. As a matter of fact, in most low-income countries, there is a projected 10% increase in a person’s future income for every additional year of education pursued by them.

Not just that, education also helps eradicate poverty and hunger and offers people a better perspective towards life and a better life overall. Quite naturally, parents try to make their kids attend school and pursue higher education. Education for both children and adults ensures the growth of an economy and the advancement of a community and society as a whole.

Different Types of Education

Education is not simply about living above the poverty line. Rather, education has a huge impact on the quality of life, employment options, and a range of other areas in a person’s life. It is a key component of any society and is a key factor for the growth and development of an individual, the community, and society.

As we already said before, education is of different types. Let us now take a look at the different types of education.

Formal education

Formal education is the kind of education a person receives from an educational institution. It is the type that is imparted in a classroom setting in an academic institution. Formal education involves students learning basic skills like reading and writing, acquiring knowledge on different subjects, and getting advanced academic lessons.

Formal education begins in elementary school and continues till postgraduate education and further. Formal education usually involves qualified teachers or professors providing lessons and such an education system follows a curriculum.

Informal education

Any kind of education that is done outside the premises of an academic institution is informal education. This may include anything like a person learning skills or acquiring knowledge from home, by visiting libraries, or by reading educational websites. Not just that, informal education may include lessons learned from family members, and elders in a person’s community.

Along with formal education, informal education is also equally important and helps in the self-development of a person. It enhances life skills, develops morality, and also helps a person gain knowledge to live sustainably in a community and society. An important thing about informal education is the fact that it is not generally planned or deliberate and also does not have any set timetable or a specific curriculum.

Informal education is a more spontaneous and natural form of education, which is very important for the development and success of an individual in their respective lives and community.

Non-Formal Education

Non-formal education is a balance between the qualities of both formal and informal education. Non-formal education blends various features of formal and informal education in the system. Non-formal education has a timetable and is systematically implemented. Although, it does not necessarily have to be conducted within an academic institution and can be taken beyond the school system. Non-formal education is more flexible both in terms of time and curriculum as compared to formal education, and generally does not have any age limit.

Non-formal education can be a form of education suitable for children and even more for adults who want to pursue education at a certain point in their life after discontinuing it. Non-formal education can be in different forms which include community-based courses, vocational training, or even short educational programs that are not facilitated by any professional or trained instructors.

The Importance and Benefits of Education

According to UNESCO, 171 million people could be lifted out of poverty with the help of proper education in low-income countries. If all students in low-income countries acquired the basic skills of reading and writing before they leave school, the entire society will change dramatically.

The benefits and importance of education go far and wide beyond the realms of a simple job, employees, and degrees. There are several Bengali educations and several reasons why it is an important part of the societal structure and development. Let us take a look at them.

• The first thing that must be mentioned as a point of the importance of education is that it helps individuals acquire appropriate and adequate communication skills which include learning how to read, write, listen and speak.

• Education helps develop a person’s problem-solving skills and enhances their critical thinking and reasoning skills. This is vital as it helps a person learn, understand and apply the use of logic when making decisions and when communicating and interacting with people. It helps in self-development and boosts the creativity of a person.

• Education helps an individual get better employment opportunities and the basic job qualifications to secure better jobs.

• Education promotes gender equality, self-reliance, and empowerment. It helps empower girls and women leading to the growth and development process of society.

• It has been seen through research that education also reduces child mortality. According to UNESCO, a child born to a mother who can read has two times more chances to survive past the age of five.

• The growth of a person on the personal, community, and society levels depends upon the kind of education he receives. With proper education, humans truly can become “social animals.”

Final Thoughts

That brings us to the end of this article and ensuring proper education for a child is the responsibility of every parent. Not just that, adults have the responsibility to educate themselves for their good and the betterment of the community they live in and the society at large. Education is crucial in every aspect of life and one cannot survive unless they learn certain skills, which comes as a form of education.