Education serves as the foundation of a society and paves the road for its future. Without education, no nation can survive, let alone prosper. While education is often thought of in terms of conventional schooling, there is far more to it. This article aims to illustrate the importance of education, from childhood to adulthood. This is necessary to reinforce the importance of universal access to education.

Foundations Of Education

According to sociological notions of education, it begins with the family. It is within the family that a child gets to learn about society. Even psychology testifies to the role the family plays in early education.

Therefore, it is emphasized that those who bring up families must be educated themselves. It is them who have to bring up the next generation. Education often ranges from using the right speech to having the right mannerisms within the family. This does not end with the beginning of a child’s traditional schooling and primarily continues across the first decade of their life. During this period, children learn to become active citizens of society. They also learn about their position and duties within society.

Schools As Incubators

The next step is schooling. Schools are supposed to be incubators for children. Every higher degree in understanding the process of education stresses the necessary methods to run schools this way.

Here, children learn to interact with others, especially those they are not related to. Here they are under the supervision of professionals who aim to teach foster in them the love for learning. This environment is specifically created to simplify the process of learning. It creates a sense of discipline within the students. It is here that the next step of education begins.

Colleges As Accelerators

Colleges act as accelerators when it comes to education. These institutions prepare students for the outside world. Colleges expose them to challenges they will meet when they step into their professional life. Therefore, the emphasis here is on providing them a conducive environment to build sustainable relationships with others. Some of these relationships can be friendships, while others can be professional ties. 

Colleges are usually extensively difficult. This is to make students go through an extensive process of learning. This aids their intellectual growth and builds their capacity for working under pressure. An enhanced capacity for working is one of the greatest skills one can learn before entering the workforce.

Bringing It All Together

These steps were highlighted for you to understand that all of these stages of education are crucial for a person’s development. From childhood to adulthood, if a person goes through these stages smoothly, they are more prepared to serve as active members of society. However, it is unfortunate that many people across the world lack access to education. In some places, either there are no teachers available, or the place simply lacks infrastructure for a traditional school.

This not only impacts their intellectual development but also renders them incompatible with changing times. If those citizens then move to an urban area, they would not be able to find themselves the right job. Moreover, this process would continue unless it takes pains to impart education to the next generation.

To further illustrate this point, we have compiled a list of reasons why education should be available to all.

  1. Creating A Level-Playing Field

The first step towards the creation of a just and equal society is to ensure educational equality. This creates a level-playing field for the people and brings them to par with one another. Those who have the same access to education will have no justification to feel inferior to one another.

  1. Creating Problem-Solvers

You can never gauge a person’s intellect unless you equip them with the right tools. In a world where problems emerge constantly, you need people who can solve them. Unless education is provided to everyone equally, you may never be able to tap that one right person for the right job.

  1. Digital Age Has Its Requirements

The digital age has certain requirements, whereby there is a strong focus on science and technology. If people are not given equal access to education, some areas will be scientifically and technologically backward. This, in turn, will lead to under-development and under-representation of those areas.

  1. Uplifting Socially-Backward Areas

This is somewhat linked to the third point but differs in nature of its scope. If people from a certain area are not granted equal access to education, that area is likely to remain poor. The people of that area may never be able to rise above the poverty threshold or learn skills that could help them earn money.

  1. Preventing Brain Drain

Brain drain is one of the greatest issues that plague societies where people do not get the right opportunities. While this may be linked to governmental policies, it has a lot to do with education. If the people do not get the right education, they are likely to move to other areas. Moreover, if educated people do not live within that vicinity, things may never change as nobody would be there to bring the right changes at the grassroots level.

  1. To Promote Political Engagement

Conventionally educated people in rural communities also engage in political activities. However, changing times demand that even the smallest of cities and villages be linked internationally. Therefore, to create a politically-aware generation that steps up into the mainstream political process, you need to provide educational access to the people.

This article summarizes the essence of equal access to education for people across the world. It provides a comprehensive overview of the way education creates a socially-conscious individual out of a person. Furthermore, the elaborate reasons also explain the importance of universal educational access to promote equality and political engagement. Therefore, given the above, one can easily see why this is one area that social workers and even common citizens must work on. For a just global society, educational access must be granted to every child on the planet.