It has been said that the education of a country is what makes it great or bad. We have all heard people say about how much better their country’s education is than others but in reality, it’s not because they can educate so many children from all over the world, but rather it’s the way we use these skills are taught. Let`s take look at some reasons why we should be more than happy with our country`s education, and then proceed to give some suggestions as to how we can make this happen.
We may think that having an educated populace would do wonders for us; it would, however, do little to actually make any difference in the real-world economic situation. In other words, there is no need to educate millions of children every single year before one starts to see significant results… The countries with the best education systems tend to be those that follow different strategies than developing ones: China for example educates its citizens with a very strict system, and Russia follows a mixed approach… China’s educational system involves spending billions on education and technology investments; meanwhile, in America, the government spends approximately $30 billion on K12 educational programs alone each year. This means that even with high-quality schools, the United States still falls behind the rest of developed nations with regards to education quality. What’s more, if you had invested in schooling two generations ago, you wouldn’t have seen much result. As mentioned above, China’s level of investment differs drastically from Europe. For example, China is currently spending 25% of GDP on the Ministry of Public Construction sector by 2017 and plans to increase that percentage to 35% by 2020. Meanwhile, Americans are projected to spend over 50% of their yearly GDP on the K-12 segment in 2016. So even though they have far fewer programs than those of China or Russia, we nevertheless expect them to improve our situation. If this were true for the majority of countries, which seem to be the norm when talking about global competitiveness… wouldn’t we therefore be happier? Unfortunately, it seems like the opposite is true. Our current economic state, combined with lack of quality education, leads to numerous problems, both within today’s society and also around the globe as well.
Let’s examine some issues caused by poor school quality:
Children don’t get equal opportunities to study across borders (This is often referred to as cross-national learning). Not only does this create a problem for local students who lack access to the same resources as the national ones, but foreign parents also miss out on social benefits. Although most individuals think that higher education is something only wealthy countries offer to prospective students, foreign families often cannot afford this kind of university experience at home. Even though it is the case, many young adults never actually go abroad for their studies. Instead, they usually end up working in low-paid positions at companies that sell goods overseas and earn much less than they deserve to for the amount of work they put in (and the fact that they can’t find another job after graduation). Foreigners also waste a lot of time attempting to adjust to new environments and cultures as opposed to focusing on academic work (although this might not sound like much, it takes away precious time from young ones so they don’t become “lost souls” when later on in life they begin to notice that their talents aren’t being exploited enough to fulfill their potential). More precisely, foreign companies prefer to place more emphasis on sales than on employee welfare. When this happens, the company loses valuable employees whose hard work could have contributed to the growth and prosperity of the business. Moreover, this process doesn’t only apply to hiring practices in specific industries; it also applies to the treatment of immigrant workers. Many immigrants tend to be treated unfairly simply because of the color or nationality of their skin. While American corporations are increasingly looking into ways to integrate immigrants into their workforce, foreign firms simply disregard the needs of their staff members as opposed to pursuing a holistic approach towards human resource management. Thereby leaving themselves vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. Lack of effective communication also contributes to an unfavorable environment. Children and adults alike often face misunderstandings, especially regarding social norms. For example, in Japan, English is considered to be superior to other languages. According to researchers, Japanese teachers emphasize speaking English so much that their students forget how to speak their native language effectively enough to ensure their survival on earth. Additionally, Japanese children seem to receive significantly lower amounts of attention than American kids, while other non-Asian countries like Australia and New Zealand treat their youth in equally favorable conditions to that of Western European counterparts. They are just not paying enough attention to them and they lack exposure to healthy lifestyle habits. Finally yet importantly, research suggests that a number of psychological disorders like depression, anxiety and schizophrenia may be connected to improper childhood development and the inability to cope with stress. This obviously affects future social interactions resulting in increased levels of hostility and distrust between strangers and between family members. These results in lower rates of cooperation among countries and can lead to decreased political stability. Not to mention children not participating in elections and becoming disenchanted with democracy itself. Overall, while not always being a concern, poor education often negatively impacts society as a whole.
The main problem, however, isn’t in failing to provide effective education to everyone and everything, but rather in providing it to too many. Just ask yourself this…
What sort of person’s education do you think made your country strong in the past? How did they learn in order to prosper in their area as a whole? By doing the reverse, their education failed them on multiple levels. Therefore not merely do we want more proficient knowledge, but we also want it provided to a greater proportion of people. Why? Because one of the biggest issues in Western democracies today is that people lose interest in studying, thus preventing their ability to thrive in various settings on multiple levels of societal participation.
I know it sounds extreme for a post of such magnitude, but believe me, with my life experience I can speak without hesitation about how important education systems from all over the world impact not only people’s lives, but even entire countries’ future prospects. Imagine that a few years down the line, you would like to retire early and invest all your wealth in building an estate. However, you are stuck in debt, unable to pay off a mortgage and living below your means. You decide to skip college in favor of investing all your money in real estate instead. After 5–10 years you realize that the property has depreciated to what appears to be worth nothing more than half its original price. However, a decade later, the land looks exactly the same. But now you’re rich! That goes for pretty much anything in modern western culture, just to name a few examples. People in other parts of the world continue to struggle to build meaningful careers even though there is plenty of opportunity available both for highly qualified specialists, and even for entry-level jobs. Thus, despite the obvious advantages presented by our advanced societies, our children should learn to appreciate the value of education, regardless of their location, since this will help them develop into responsible and capable members of society. Furthermore, it’s the only way we will allow everyone to enjoy all the benefits of education without destroying it for anyone. With proper education, the gap between rich and poor will shrink and help eradicate poverty altogether. At first, maybe you won’t see any results but in the long run, it’s going to turn out amazing.
