Article published in The Global Panorama - Oct 2014
Education is one of the fundamental basics of life and characteristically, it is indispensable. Knowledge is the pinnacle of growth, success, motivation, creativity, and innovation. Consequently, when one is equipped with the tool that is education, there is no limit to what one can achieve. Today’s youth are the leaders of tomorrow and their education is what will ultimately pave the path to a bigger and brighter future, not just for them but collectively, for the rest of the world as well. So when governments fail to propel the education system in the right direction by ensuring sufficient funding across the board for all schools involved, not only are they allowing a disservice to occur that will plague individuals but they are also robbing the world of a better future.
Education systems can be discerned and best described in terms of developed, first world countries and undeveloped, third world countries. There lies stark differences between the two and one does not need to look hard to notice that our current education system is broadly based on an unleveled and unfair playing field.
Third world countries such as Kenya, Somalia, Nigeria and other African countries are bogged down in poverty and fraught with high illiteracy rates. These are the same countries that are mired with corrupt government officials preoccupied primarily with lining their own pockets in lieu of the greater good for their country and people. It comes as no surprise then, that government funding for education is almost non-existent in these countries thus rendering the populace to fend for itself with no hope of a better future. Without the right governing body, monetary aid sourced from first world countries scantily percolates the education system at best. At worst, the funds meant to improve the education system and other forms of social welfare are siphoned off to make obscenely rich politicians the sole benefactors of prodigious sums of money. Equal access to education is a great weapon in the government’s arsenal for eradicating high levels of illiteracy and hence inching closer to economic growth, but the misallocation of resources cultivates a vicious cycle of poverty and a low rate of economic growth for developing countries. This is the adverse status quo that is typical of most third world countries.
Third world countries also exhibit great disparity in the incomes of the haves and the have not’s. The upper class have resources at their disposal to place towards some of the best private education money can buy, in order to facilitate their ambitions, goals and maintain their favorable position in society. The lower class on the other hand are reduced to a further state of perpetual poverty and disarray due to their lack of an alternate means of procuring an education such as government issued student loans with low interest rates. Sadly, this is tantamount to a regressive society stuck in an equivocal quagmire. This parochial state of affairs leads to heightened criminal activity since the younger generation, whose sole focus should be education and the search of a fitting job is bereft of such duties and are forced to find alternate means of stimulation. To this end, Nigeria has earned a reputation for being a country with one of the highest number of scammers. Their elaborate Internet schemes that mostly prey on unknowing Westerners has reprehensibly led them to be assigned the title of “419 scams.”
First world countries like England, Canada and the United States essentially have better education systems in place however, they are not entirely immune to the element of unfairness. The education system in these countries is shrouded in controversy due to the profound disparity in the quality of education. This is especially true of countries experiencing a high influx of immigration that has ultimately led to certain localities within the country to have better resources and greater development than other areas. Immigrant populations tend to cluster in areas of a particular city where there is an abundance of cheap housing, conformity of values, race and like-mindedness whereas the more affluent population settle in areas that are secluded to them. Unfortunately, great care is taken to ensure that areas occupied by the middle and upper classes are adequately funded by the government and the schools maintain high standards of infrastructure, technology and other resources conducive to the overall performance of students that live in the vicinity. Research has shown that Asians and Caucasians have access to some of the finest schools while African and Latino minorities have inadequate educational resources to channel into a brighter future for themselves.
Many a times low-income areas grow in unprecedented scales due to the exodus of immigrants and this makes up-keep a challenge for the government, leading up to incontrovertibly abandoning such neighbourhoods to destitute. In other cases poor neighbourhoods do not spur an equal amount of interest from the government and this also invariably leads to a breakdown of the education system in those areas due to a lack of funding. The common denominator in both cases, unfortunately, is the student with low-income parents living in a low-income neighbourhood that suffers from a lack of resources, subsequently laying the groundwork for yet another vicious cycle of poverty.
It comes as no surprise that recent research has shown that as many as sixty-four of the worlds billionaires graduated from Harvard University alone, twenty three more from Stanford University and fourteen from Columbia University. This is a testament to how a good education precipitates a culture of high achieving individuals, catapulting them to success. An education reform should therefore work towards reevaluating the pitfalls of our current education system in order to nurture and facilitate the achievement of a bright future for everyone involved.
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