Basic HTML Version
4 I The Best Online Education System in the world
EDUCATION – ITS TRUE PURPOSE
Marian Baltazar
Class of 1980, University of the Philippines Manila
Political Science
What is the true purpose of education? When we talk of education, we speak of knowledge gain. Education
gives us the knowledge of the world around us. It develops in us the true perspective of looking at life. It also
helps us to build opinions and have points of view on everything in life. Education originated from the Greek
word “educare” which meant “leading out”. Education means an arising from unawareness to the awareness of
one’s innate capabilities known as talents in order to serve a purpose in social development. It helps in
imbibing moral and ethical values in the individuals and it helps every human being thrive in society, to interact
with other social animals, helping a person to attain and maintain a certain degree of social well-being. It
makes us capable of interpreting rightly the things perceived. It is not about the lessons and poems that we see
in the textbooks but it is about the lessons of life.
In simple layman’s term, education is to bring about progress in practical fields enabling each educated
individual of society to earn a living. Education is important for it equips us with all that we need to make our
dreams come true. It opens doors of brilliant career opportunities and it is a fact that every employer of today
requires his prospective employees to be well educated. The expertise that we can acquire in the field that we
venture can be achieved through education. It eventually becomes an eligibility criterion for employment into
any sector of the industry. It is therefore essential for it paves the path leading to disillusionment and directs us
to enlightenment. It helps an individual build its confidence to take decisions, to face life and to accept
successes and failures. It implants a sense of pride about the knowledge one has and prepares the individual
for life.
Schools and colleges define the basic framework of education. Education does not end in schooling which gives
us the fundamentals as we specialize in our fields of interest. It is a lifelong process. It continues through all the
phases of our life.
Education lays the foundation for the fulfillment of a person’s dreams and aspirations. It helps an individual
meet his or her career objectives (accomplishing his/her goals) and achieve an economic growth. It gives you a
sense of personal fulfillment (creating a positive effect on an individual’s personality) which encourages the
idea of education, thus leading to educate his/her children.
Hence an individual results in an educated family, which will hand it down to the future generations. I firmly
believe that one of education’s true purposes is that, it aims at creating good teachers. Moreover, the true
purpose of education is to bring about profoundness to one’s emotions, to broaden one’s perspectives and to
lead a healthier approach of looking at life.
Questions for discussions:
1. Why is education important?
2. What is its true purpose?
3. Are the people aware of its growing need?
4. What kind of education do we want our offspring to have?
5. Can we explain the complexity of education?