importance of education
October 20, 2008
I remembered two extreme reactions that my father’s friend had when they had a talk about the country. He claimed that singapore has been ever so efficient in terms of catering to the needs of the citizens especially when it comes to the standards of living. Studio apartments in toa payoh and Holland road have been retiled, and an extra unit was added at the back of the kitchen. However, when the conversation diverted to jobs in singapore, he criticised the government, saying that they seem to focus on the non-malays. He continued saying that it is pointless to work hard as at the end of the day, we do not get the jobs that we desired. And he actually turned to me and said, “Why bother studying hard?”
As much as i wanted to scream in rebuttal vehemently, that will only seem extremely rude and will probably cause me a great deal of trouble. There may be job discrimination in terms of requirements that employers state in their job advertisements but that has been tackled with since. Perhaps, the man said it out of anger becasue his sons did not get the jobs they desired but if the malay population were to have the same mindset as him, then nobody will be bale to prove this stereotype wrong. If most of the individuals in the community were to think that it is futile or useless to work hard, it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy in the end. Nobody works hard, nobody gets to achieve greater goals.
A country may be urbanized or developed but the main concern would probably be whether the people have the ability to follow the pace of its development. What i believe is that it all comes down to education, especially when economies have become more knowledge based. In addition to that, education is what determines your position in the society and the jobs that you get; it is the root for the division of labor in the society. This division of labor will either be appreciated or criticised. For my father’s friend’s case, it is most definitely the latter as he categorizes the undesired jobs as “bad jobs”. As a country develops rapidly, the demand for education and educated people heightens. More jobs are based on the vast field of knowledge one possesses. In the end, the ones with lower education gets left out, and the opportunities for the unskilled decreases drastically due to the constant rise of educated labor.
Some may argue that the rapid growth of technology and innovation is the cause for the widening gap between the rich and the poor, thus the poor gets left behind. This is agreeable to some extent but the fact is, this development will not pause for people to catch up. It is not the people’s choice whether or not they want to be the followers of the growth of the country or otherwise. Moreover, it is probably stereotypes or perceived opinions my father’s friend hold that causes some of us to be left behind in the midst of this rapid developments and urbanization. If individuals were to have the same opinion as his, development of the country will then be pointless. As cliche as this may sounds, but true nevertheless, it is never too old to learn. Education may not be the vital aspect for the growth in other countries, but in singapore, it is.
