[LETTERS] Why we need to redeem our education

Editor, RE: “We must redeem our education before its too late” (The New Times, August 8). For long, education has been loosely understood to be passage to well-paying jobs and wealth. Yet, in reality, the core purpose of education, in my opinion, is to transform the mindset of learners inculcating sympathy and tolerance in individuals along other certain aspects like trying to understand and deal with the so-called sensitive and controversies in life. I view education in three stages: The core stage is the family (domestic) one, which is acquired from parents. I add my voice to the worries expressed in the aforementioned article, that if not dealt with urgently, we are doomed. There are less efforts today by parents as regards to giving this type of knowledge that children deserve and those trying do so are not fully exhausting it to the fullest. This is one stage that takes a minimum of seven years during early childhood; it should specifically target the morals of children and other inner virtues that children learn from the environments in which they live. The environment is one big school that people normally ignore but for those parents who want to raise brilliant kids, this is crucial. Parenting is slowly but surely left in the hands of the babysitters (house helpers) as mothers are fighting tooth and nail to provide for their families. But there is need to commit some time to mold your child as parents. The best teachers at this stage are mothers due to their sympathetic that help slow learning children. The second stage is the school (elementary, secondary and tertiary); of late this has totally taken over all the responsibilities of stage one (family stage). You find teachers doing almost everything for parents. In the past, any case of indiscipline would be attributed to the childs upbringing but today it is more attached to the school one went to. Yet schools should be only focusing on training and fine-tuning the basic knowledge one acquired at home. Training, yes! This should be aimed at discovering the hidden potential of the pupils. A lot of theoretical work during early learning discourages most of the learners yet some minimal practicals would interest them. Theories hardly enable one to innovate, that is why the majority of current graduates world over end up becoming job-seekers. The third and final stage is on the national or global level. The government comes in at last to add the icing on the cake. This level, however, has become the most recognisable one yet in actual sense it is hard to get here without the previous two. This intervention would only be to bring to life the small projects into resourceful ones to nations. The other role here would be setting up policies to harmonising the education sector. Issues to do with who should be in the education sphere. It is evident that the majority of the teachers out there are teaching against their will. Elsewhere education course is the last resort for many at the university; former prosperous teachers should encourage the young to pursue it as any other course. Anyways, we should go back to the drawing board to revive the glory days of education. Khassim Bizimungu

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[LETTERS] Why we need to redeem our education