Critical thinking
a. All children have the
right to quality education. How can we ensure this right to every child?
Discuss the role of the government and the parents to make sure that every
child can attend school.
One of the most
frequently heard slogans in contemporary world is 'All children have the right
to quality education'. Even if the nation is in miserable condition and strangled
in vicious circle of poverty, the nation vows for equal access of education for
all citizens. However, many nations are
unable to achieve their goal to provide quality education to each and every
citizen. There are many affecting factors for the unequal education status of children
living with in a nation.
To ensure the equal
access of quality education among different socio-economic status of the
children, the concerned parties should change the traditional view of education
and should be committed to the positive actions that lead a nation towards its
goal of equal access of quality education.
The role of government
for equal opportunity of quality education is very crucial for attainment of
such goals. Firstly, the government should make proper policy of education. The
policies made by government must be practical and need based. To meet the aim
of the policy, it is very necessary to allocate proper amount of money to
conduct required programs and projects. Similarly, government should coordinate
and regulate the educational efforts of private agencies as well. Only the
single effort of federal government is not sufficient for equal education, the
local and sub national governments should be equally responsible for that.
Likewise, all the activities of the government should be transparent and
accountable so that the is little chance of corruption in educational
activities.
There is famous slogan
in education sector 'Education begins at home.' This means that parents are
responsible for initiative of their children's education. Parents should bear
as many children as they are able to fulfill the educational as well as other
needs of their children. Parents should understand the fact that investing
money in education of children is more valuable than investment in share
market. Investment in education does not bring only monetary profit; it brings
cultural and multidimensional profit to parents. Parents are first teacher of
children: they are responsible for developing socio-cultural habit of their
children. The culture that parent provide at home affects the educational
career of the children.
In nutshell, we can
conclude that the role of government and the role of parents is obligatory to
ensure the equal access of education. If these two agencies work with mutual
understanding, no child will be outreach of quality education.
b. Do you think that there is still discrimination between sons and daughters in terms of providing education in our country? What strategies do you suggest to overcome such discrimination against girls?
In past decades, it was
very common to see boy of a family went school but girl went field to work with
parents. However, the present scenario is different: both son and daughter go
to school. The educational statistics also shows that the enrollment of girl in
education is almost same as that of boys. Seemingly, discrimination can not be
seen between boys and girls regarding educational matter. If one observes the
ground reality very closely, the scenario is different. There is still
discrimination between the boys and the girls regarding education in terms of
selection of educational institution, selection of subject and the highest
level of education that the parents set up for their children. Parents prefer
to send their son to city, expensive private school and to take up on demand
subjects. At the same time, some parents send their daughter to local school
and force them to choose simple subjects. This is not discrimination in terms
of access but it is discrimination in terms of quality.
There is not a single
measure to overcome with the problem of such discrimination. Neither there are
universal measures to solve the problem. The strategies applied to overcome the
problem subject to the determining causes of the problems. In Nepalese context,
primarily, traditional cultural factors are responsible for such
discrimination. To ensure the equal access of girl education, the strategy of
positive discrimination should be applied. If we lure the parents with
educational and post educational opportunity for girl, the parents will be
ready to provide quality education to daughters. For example, if we provide
scholarship, fellowship, other economic incentives in school, the enrollment
rate of the girls will definitely increase. Likewise, the enrollment rate of girls
will certainly increase if we ensure the job for female after completion of a
degree. Likewise, the infrastructure and educational structures must be girls
friendly so that female students retain in class and dropout rate will
decrease.
Similarly, some legal
sanctions should be set for those parents who discriminate between son and
daughter. The role of society is very important to reduce the discrimination.
To aware the whole society media campaign, the presence of people's
representatives is very crucial.
We must be optimistic
that there is global concern of girls' education. This concern compels the
government to set up proper strategy to overcome the burning issue.
c. A Chinese philosopher Confucius said, “If your plan is for one year, plant rice; if your plan is for ten years, plant trees; if your plan is for one hundred years, educate children.” What is the meaning of this saying? Elaborate this with examples.
The proverb of Confucius
glorifies the importance of education. The effect of education exists for
centuries. A badly constructed house may kill one family, a badly constructed
bridge may cause few accidents but bad education may push the society several years
back. The proverb conveys special message to the government. It warns the
policy makers to design the educational policy in such a way that the society
will be thrusted several feet ahead. This is message is for parents and society
as well. If any family want long term profit, then they have to invest in good
education rather than buying lands. To put in few words the proverb states that
education should be the first priority of a nation.
Writing
a. Recall your school days. Write in three paragraphs of an event that you always remember.
Freedom, friend and fighting were three defining
characteristics of my school days. I
always reminiscence the 10 years long school days. I hardly remember how I was when I studied up
to class three. I remember many events of my school days from class 4 to class
10. I still remember the value of money in those days. I had plenty of free
time. I used to spend that time in games and in many naughty activities. The
most boring thing to do at that time was to be concentrated in books. If I got
any chance to deceive parents, there was a river nearby village which offered
us for fishing and swimming. There are
uncountable events which are in my memory and it needs a bulky note book to
describe a few of them. Here, I am going to describe a story in short.
That incident took place when I was studying in class
6. One day I and six other friends decided to leave the school at 1 o'clock.
Our plan was playing football in the empty land that was on the way to school.
We left school without notifying teachers. Although the match was football,
there was not ball to play. So, we stole
a citrus grandis from nearby tree and the match was started.
We played till 4 o'clock and I went home pretending as
if I studied very rigorously. After some time, my leg started to hurt. I had no
shoes, so I used to wear sandals to school. And on that very day I played so
called football on bare feet. The pain increased continuously. My mother asked
me about the matter. I lied her that it hurt suddenly. She massaged my
legs. After some time, I felt some
relief.
I went school the next day. However, somebody had
already reported about our escape of previous day. Head teacher came in the
morning assembly and called out our name. He ordered us to walk on our knee
three round of the playground. It was so painful. This was due to somehow our
mistake but the reason behind our escape was lack of playthings in school. The
playground was so small. That is why we had to run away from school. After that
day I never bunked classes.
b. "Education empowers a person". Elaborate this statement giving examples of your personal experience.
One may ask 'What is the main difference between
modern mankind and a primitive Homo Sapiens? ' The answer is very simple 'It is
only education.' The development of human beings from a wild beast to civilised
human is due to education. Education is not limited in school or college it is
the process of the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and
habits. the product of education is empowering of person.
Education empowers a person by developing many traits
that other people want from him / her. Helping the needy ones, empathy to
others, taking responsibility are example of such traits. If a person has these
traits, s/he is accepted by the society and his power increases.
Similarly, education changes our thinking pattern. The
new thinking pattern or creative thinking guides person towards innovation. If
the innovation becomes feasible in practice, then the thought brings changes in
human tradition. For example, the thoughts of Einstein, Babbage, Wright
Brothers changed the life of human beings.
In postmodern era every human endeavour is directed
towards post, power and property. For that, inherent property or clan is not
sufficient. Education determines post of person; the post creates power and
property. Bill Gates, Alfred Nobel, Steav Jobs, Zuckerberg have become
successful by education and new thought.
Education develops the innate capacities of human
beings. It is said that each individual
is equipped with some inherent capacities but until and unless proper education
is providing, the capacities become latent. Plato, Socrates, Vinci, Marx are
the example who were able to develop their innate capacity and they are known
to world.
Education is the synonym of progress. All innovations
that has sophisticated our life are product of education. The revolutions and
change in civilization are product of education. It is not possible to jot down
the role of education in the process of empowerment of a person in an essay.
Writing and describing education might be the endeavours of Sisyphus who was
never success to place a stone on the top of a hill. Rather we can conclude
that instead of describing education, we should gain education.
0 Comments