Education - Not an Easy Road

                It was once I had a communication session with one of my lecturers during my training session in the Centre for Training, Management and Appraisal (CeTMA) at the university that I am currently studying. The communication session, for me, is quite meaningful and I personally think that I should share the information with all of you as my readers.

Initial Objective of Education

                As the title proposed, the education is not an easy road. Through my conversation with the lecturer, who is also the Director of CeTMA, I found that the initial objective of education is now rarely followed by the students, especially the undergraduates who are still studying.

                Education, initially is a field which the main objective is actually to teach a human being not to be perfect, but to think rationally and critically when solving a problem. The main different between the educated people and the uneducated people, “theoretically” should think in different ways. The educated people should be able to think more critically which the solution being proposed by the people should solve the problems more effectively compared to those who are not educated.

Objective Distorted

                However, through the conversation, she shared her opinion to me which I personally also agreed to the opinion. Most of the undergraduates nowadays, when go to the practicum, seems like they do not know anything on what they had learnt in the university.

                The major cause of this phenomenon is the distortion of the education among the undergraduates. The more serious problem is, the distortion starts from the early education of the students. I am sure that your parents must once said, “Study hard and get good results, you will be a successful person. “ I once think, what is the relationship between good grades and good job? It is not related at all!

                Nowadays, the employers look into more perspectives than the past. Not only those “perfect” exam scores they look into now. The employers tend to look into the initial objective of education which is the ability to think critically.

                You might be doubted, wow, the point is obviously virtual. How are we going to achieve? Well, just put aside you doubts. I might use several posts to share whatever I had come across with my lecturer here.

Study for Exam or Study for Life?

                Through the conversation also, we came to the root cause of the distorted education. It is the time for graduates to think of one thing, what is the purpose you come to the university? To be equipped with the skills so that you can seek a job? To pass in the examination with the flying colours and being popular in the university?

                Some of the undergraduates cannot even find why they are here. They just study for their examination without knowing deeply the knowledge they are getting. Memorizing the books Is a common thing for a university student when they only study in the last minute, after they had been busy for the other student activities, which they think are more essential than their academic. The often excuse for last minute study is busy for the events etc. This also makes me wonder, why are you joining a lot of events since yourself do not even have sufficient time for study?

                This caused the fresh graduates to be unemployed when their study is just for examination. This mind is not only limited to the objective of getting a good mark, it also goes to the selection of the subjects. Students tend to register for the subjects they think is easy to score, without really thinking the needs of the subjects in their future career field.

                Exempting the students who are forced to take the course, a serious problem occur when the students study only for examination. Normally, the last minute study leads to the short term memory where the students immediately forgot what did they learnt after the examination. This is the effect of memorizing books that I mentioned earlier. This kind of attitude finally leads to the lack of competency among most of the graduates when they cannot even provide a solution related to their profession when they are being required by the employers.

It is Time to Change

                I hope that you understand what did I wrote in the paragraphs above. This is just part of the conversation details between me and the lecturer after we discussed in deep regarding the issues of unemployment among the fresh graduates. In short, as an undergraduate, it is crucial for us to always aim for the “Whole-Life-Education” rather than the “Exam-Oriented-Education”. What do I mean here is to understand really well on whatever we are studying so that the knowledge we gain will be stored as long-term memory, not just for ourselves but for a better future.

2019-11-06

6.30 pm