Education has no age limit by Aminat Adesope

On a global basis, no statistics are adequate to suggest the magnitude of the revolution in education today. In the United States Information Services Libraries it is on record that in the third world, about thirty million people annually use the facilities provided. The agency distributes eight million books every year. The Soviet Union also distributes over one hundred and fifty million books to the developing countries all over the world. But together, these programs don’t come near to meeting the world demand.

More facts and figures cannot convey the human passion for learning. In the English teaching programs mounted for children in Latin-American countries, children have been known to have sold the shoes off their feet to pay their way to classes. In Africa, a trial Chief was turned away from enrolling in a class because there were no more chairs. The next day, he and a contingent of his fellow chief were waiting outside the door, each carrying his own chair.

The revolution is not limited to the developing world. In the United States, there are more than fifty million students attending more than 185,000 public and private schools at all levels. We have entered an age in which a person is defenseless in this complex industrialized society. Levels of education which were once regarded with awe have now become common place. And jobs which once could be filled with possession of strength and native intelligence now call for a college degree. We have truly entered the century of the educated men.

It is a mistake, however to confuse skill with education. A man who has been taught only to hold a job has not been educated, he has only been trained. And the man who is merely trained is not fully qualified to take his place in a free society as a fully participating citizen. An all-round education should equip the learner for any challenges he may encounter.

Education, of course, is not something that is acquired just in college. It is a life-long task and when I think of death, I think of it as the moment when the brain ceases to inquire and expand.

Aminat Adesope is one of our Staff Writers