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When you have an education, especially a college degree or a vocational education, you may find your life has more stability. Your education cannot be taken away from you. Whatever you learn, inside the classroom or outside, enriches your life. Your education may improve you financially as well, helping you increase your income at your current workplace. It may even lead you to new career opportunities or directions.
Many ask, “Why is education important?” That is a big question. And the question has many answers. We will give some answers, and we suppose many other solutions to that question might be excellent or better than our answers. This is one of the articles in Lucubrate Magazine that try to answer “Why Education?”
Stability in the Classroom
Education can contribute to social stability by building knowledge and skills. The school, and more specifically the classroom, need to be safe, predictable and inspiring places. The school address tensions without violence and discrimination, especially when schools are among the few spaces where children can mingle and experience diversity in the country. A positive culture must be established before academic achievement begins.
Stability for the Student
If we look at the child that day go to school, we can see that this creates stability during childhood. Most children get their education from school, and school makes an excellent routine for them. Having a routine like going to school also teach the child to get used to schedules, become more independent, and look forward to different parts of their day.
Stability in the Society
In an article called “Education, Economic Growth, and Social Stability: Why the Three Are Inseparable”, Miemie Winn Byrd [1] evaluate the connection between education and stability:
- A nation’s human capital has been identified as crucial for its progress and development. Education is the primary mechanism for escalating human resources and accumulating human wealth. Therefore, public education is one of the most critical inputs for nations’ social and economic outcomes.
- In times of economic downturn and crisis, reducing public investment in education to cut government deficit can impede longer-term growth and development.
- Depending on the policy insertion, schools and education systems can serve as channels for developing peaceful societies or exacerbate the situation. Disparities in education based on gender and socioeconomic status can significantly drag growth. Additionally, an education gap that aligns with social, political, and economic fault lines creates resentments leading to violence, conflict, and instability.
- National education policies must be linked to security, social, and economic strategies for a higher probability of success. Such linkage requires interagency cooperation within governments.
The School May Foster Stability or Conflict
On the other hand, an article from 2019 concludes that education can both mitigate and exacerbate conflict [2]. The paper introduces that this mainly concerned primary and secondary education until recently. Still, there is a new recognition of the potential for universities to play a significant role in conflict mobilisation, conflict response and conflict recovery. However, the relationship is complex and context-dependent, affected by several key factors.
The paper concludes that schools are vital civic institutions. Still, their impact depends on various social and economic measures that shape and influence society’s experience. There is no “silver bullet” that guarantees a positive outcome, and any education structure is linked to the particular country and system in which it is based. Educational interventions need to be planned and decided with a specific context in mind. There must be careful attention to every level of the intervention process to positively impact security and stability in the longer term.
Changes Around us Need Stability in the Classroom
The changes in the world today are characterised by new levels of complexity and contradiction. These changes generate tensions for which education is expected to prepare individuals and communities by enabling them to adapt and respond.
We are living in a world characterised by change, complexity and paradox. Economic growth and the creation of wealth have cut global poverty rates. Unsustainable economic production and consumption patterns promote global warming, environmental degradation, and an upsurge in natural disasters. Yet, vulnerability, inequality, exclusion and violence have escalated within and across societies worldwide.
To meet the challenges, we should make it possible for everyone to follow their education in a stable environment. In the long run, education creates stability.
References
[1] Miemie Winn Byrd, Education, Economic Growth, and Social Stability: Why the Three Are Inseparable”, 2009 [2] Juliet Millican, Education and stability, K4D, 2019Lucubrate Magazine January 2022
The photo on the top of the article: Adobe Stock
Why Education?
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