Week 1 – The Purpose of Education
Education is surely a trusted key to greatness, as former South African President Nelson Mandela stated; “No citizen can grow beyond his or her educational level.” Education is the best gift any country can bestow on its population, particularly its children. This is because education is critical to a nation’s or community’s development,
Education is the process of passing on knowledge from one person to another; the oxford languages dictionary defines education as the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at school.
The purpose of education can be seen in an individual, a community, a state and a nation.
Education is a great tool that society employs to transmit all of its societal values, this is socialization according to Biesta in his paper risking ourselves in education he highlighted three purposes of education in which socialization is one of them, it has to do with culture ,tradition and values of the society according to him socialization also represent the hidden curriculum which is a set of unspoken implicit rules that are learnt while attending school, the socialization aspect happens to be a very important one in my country – Nigeria because of the high esteem that is placed on culture, some parents prefer their children living in the state capital to go to their hometown for secondary education just for them to get used to the culture of their town , the government is also taking action in school because I am a public school teacher, for instance for over twenty years history has been removed from the junior school curriculum but recently history is now one of the compulsory subjects to be taken in the junior school just to preserve the cultural heritage of the society and country at large. In all Lagos state schools every Wednesday our dress code is the Yoruba traditional wear and morning assembly is conducted using Yoruba language instead of English language that we use on other days and the objective is for the student to develop dressing and speaking Yoruba language, this is one of the numerous examples of hidden curriculum found in my school, so consciously or unconsciously the students start appreciating and copying the Yoruba dressing and language.
Biesta dwelt so much on subjectification as one of the purpose of education, in subjectification the child or student is the subject ,that is the doer of the action, it means to act in and with the world in a grown up way, here learners make up their mind and come to their own understanding, it is oriented towards grown up way of trying to lead one’s life, subjectification is not neoliberal which is freedom of shopping, it is about qualified freedom which is connected to our existence, subjectification is not who I am but how I am, it is not about personality but it is about how I live, how I respond and engage with what I encounter, it is about what I will do with my identity.
As an educator I also support subjectification, according to Biesta the young ones are helped not to forget that they exist as a subject, I believe with this, a child is trained to be independent and make realistic decisions, even government educational policies support subjectification in my country which is child centeredness, gone were the days when curriculum was teacher centered , then the major method of teaching is lecturing method, but today the curriculum is child centered and we use teaching methods that are child centered such as brainstorming , questioning, think pair share, gallery approach, chunk and chew etc, the teacher now plays the role of a facilitator, he or she facilitates learning to bring about the best in the child.
Qualification is the third purpose Biesta mentioned and this has to do with making available knowledge and skills, it is a justification for schooling, this qualification also make academic progression possible, for instance in my country formerly we operate the 6-3-3-4 education system but it was later changed to 9-3-4, and the first part 9 means 9 years of basic education which is compulsory for every child , that is the primary school and junior secondary, it is expected that by the time a child is through with the basic education he or she must have acquired some level of knowledge to either further or be independent, I just hope that one day Nigeria too will get to level of the UK beginning of their state schools which led to the 1870 education ACT where education was institutionalized, education was made free for all child and it is also a must for every child, it is not biased or based on religion, in Nigeria not all the states are giving free education except for some states like Lagos, Taraba, Anambra, Enugu to mention a few, the issue of government not providing free education makes the problem of child labour to linger in Nigeria unlike in the UK.
The purpose of education is so wide , in addition to the purposes mentioned above education help someone personally to live a better live, get better on ones job, get a better job, interact and accept other people regardless of their belief, colour etc,
Education also develops the 21st century skills in an individual the skills are critical thinking and problem solving, creativity and imagination, collaboration and communication, value education and digital literacy all these when embraced by an individual brings out the best in them.
Education brings healing, progress, good governance and a better environment.
Education transforms an individual.
References
Biesta, G,2020, Risking Ourselves In Education:Qualification,Socialization,And Subjectification Revisited.
Ayesh P. ,2023, Hidden Curriculum Education:Definition and Exampleshttps://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/627412-nigerian-governor-announces-free-compulsory-education-from-nursery-to-jss-3.html#:~:text=Governor%20Charles%20Soludo%20of%20Anambra,public%20schools%20in%20the%20state
https://education.lagosstate.gov.ng/2023/07/25/lagos-reiterates-commitment-to-free-education/
Good work Olubukola and a good start to your time on the programme. I can see the beginnings of something good here in this post so I hope you try and action this feedback and improve each week. By the end of the semester, you should be in an excellent position to succeed on the remainder of the programme.
My feedback here is more about providing some encouragement to get you to continue to refine your writing throughout the semester, rather than any seeming deficiency in this first post. Just something to continue building on each week.
At the beginning you draw on a number of different perspectives to the purpose of education (Mandela, Oxford Dictionary, etc.) but I wanted to see what you thought of the matter directly, I.e. what is Olubukola’s perspective on the purpose of education. I might encourage you to start each post with a strong response to the question being asked (a thesis statement essentially). This isn’t criticism per se, just some encouragement to a: answer the question as directly as possible and b: be sure to impart your critical voice in all your writing.
Good engagement with Biesta’s concepts of socialisation (in particular) and how it impacts the Nigerian system of education. I encourage you to do just this for each post: take the readings, surface the most applicable concepts, and apply them critically to your own context. We are keen to learn about the Nigerian context here whenever possible.
I really enjoyed the discussion of the role of culture in Nigerian education, discussed in relation to students going back to their hometown to learn culture, or the Yoruba dress in Lagos schools on certain days. All of these are really revealing aspects of what Nigeria values in regard to their education (which might differ from what you are seeing from your fellow students). Continue with that discussion in subsequent posts.
Formatting: if at all possible, try to separate individual paragraphs (or use headings for each section) to make it a bit easier to read. I am guessing this was more a matter of learning the blogging system functionality but for each post try and refine your formatting as the format can ultimately support your larger argument. Headed sections, line breaks, etc. all make your argument more coherent and accessible.
In future posts, try using inline citations to draw on the readings and research more explicitly (Author, Year). You do this implicitly by calling on Biesta but without using an inline citation. Just a good habit to get into earlier rather than later!
It is good to get in the habit as well of providing the reference list at the end (which you did of course). We use Harvard referencing system on the course and this resource should help: https://www.citethemrightonline.com/category-list?docid=CTRHarvard. But it was clear that you were engaging with Biesta systematically so well done there.
Also, you might notice that in this week there was little to no mention of digital technology and its impact on education. I encourage you to reflect on how socialisation and cultural emphasis in education might work in an increasingly digital format, how that provides opportunities or constrains the possibility of reimagining education, and what are the impacts of how Nigerian education is being structured. So good work to begin and if you action the above as much as possible in each post, you are off to a good start!
I appreciate the feedback sir,I will improve
You are very welcome!