Nelson Mandela had said that education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. This quote so aptly explains the importance of education.

Education transforms societies positively, by making them safer place to live, and boosting their economic progress. On micro level, it develops an individual into a confident, civilized and self motivated person, well equipped with self efficacy and self esteem.

Its importance can be best understood by slogan adopted by UNESCO in 2000 at the World education forum in Senegal. This slogan which is now a movement led by UNESO, was “Education for all”.

Aristotle described importance of education by saying that roots of education are bitter but its fruit is sweet. We will deliberate on how education is important for individuals and society in this article. First let’s discuss its advantages for individuals:

Brings prosperity, fame and social acceptability:

Education can transform financial status of individuals in a major way. There are numerous success stories around us as how individuals belonging to poor backgrounds have revolutionized their families’ financial status after getting highly educated.

Once a person gets good education, especially professional one, he gets exposed to excellent career prospects with hefty salary, fringe benefits and other perks. The resulting higher income streams bring good fortunes to self and family.

The other huge benefit produced by a good education is enhanced social acceptance. The scientists, doctors, chartered accountants and professors are considered as cream of the society. They are invited to attend seminars, meetings and workshops. People feel pride by asking them to inaugurate conferences owing to their excellent academic achievements.

Fame is also a bonus gift by the society to all highly educated people. The people like Noam Chomsky and Stephen Hawking are honored by everybody.

Transforms persona and Psyche

By virtue of good education a shy, nervous and introverted person can become a bold, confident and ambitious human being. It is the responsibility of a good educational system to ensure that, students are groomed in a manner, that they can face challenges with determination.

Educated people lead a quality life:

Education creates a sense of responsibility and educated people feel responsible to keep themselves and their family healthy. Since they realize the importance of health they tend to arrange hygienic food and drink safe and clean water.

Another very important change in educated person’s life is the consciousness about passing quality time with their families. They are also more conscious about keeping environment clean. It is therefore a common observation that all campaign for safe environment and fight against global warming are launched and led by educated people.

Impact on women life:

I will discuss impact of education especially because it is so profound that it proves to be game changer in their lives. Imagine the status of downtrodden, oppressed and exploited women in third world underdeveloped countries. This helplessness is further accentuated by societal norms which do not allow women to get education.

Wherever the women described above gets chance to get education, their lives undergo metamorphosis. They become courageous, confident and bold. In some countries, United Nations and other global bodies are funding education for women and marvelous results are being obtained. In Bangladesh and India for example, Good education in poor women in villages have made them entrepreneurs. Now these women are enjoying higher income streams for their families bringing good fortunes for them.

Now we come to the second part of our discussion, which pertains to Importance of education for society at large.

Economic Development:

This is the most obvious and profound impact of education on society. Take the example of Australia, and Japan where education has brought fantastic economic development. These are countries enjoying very high literacy rates and per capita incomes in these countries are also very high.

Many countries are very poor due to neglect of education. Let’s see how economic development increases as a result of education. First of all, spending on education by governments is actually an investment in human resource. Human being is the greatest asset a nation can have. An educated and skilled work force is highly productive and their contribution is the return on that investment. This return is in the shape of economic development.

Societies become safer:

Education’s great gift to society is safe and secured environment:

My mind is diverted to a famous saying of a great writer Victor Hugo, who says “One who opens a school’s door closes a prison”. It is a fact that education leads to lesser crimes in societies. There are two very obvious reasons for this .One is that youth becomes occupied in productive professions and  are affluent due to education and thus do not feel driven to crime. Second is the enhancement of social responsibility as education creates civic sense in people and they start caring for the nation more than before.

AUTHOR BIO

Kelly Leona is an educational consultant by profession but she is also an activist for digital literacy and restructuring of educational system. She is also a academic writer and currently work at Online assignment help Company as a expert academic writer.