By Mujeezah Adeleke
In simple terms, education is seen as an act of teaching knowledge to others and the act of receiving knowledge from someone else. It also encompasses the knowledge received through schooling or instructions and to the institution of teaching as a whole.
The origin of a word gives a broadly meaning to the word as a whole, Etymologically, the word “Education” is derived from the Latin words “educare”, “educere” and “educantum”. Educare refers to “to bring up’ or “to nourish“, whereas the word ”educere” means to “to bring forth” or “to drag out”.
Education can be classified into formal and informal means, all these are ways of acquiring knowledge which can make one intellectual.
In this line of discussion; Education is not only about learning of facts but also training the mind to think , the best place to use is the school where formal education takes place , the informal means of education is a lifelong learning process, whereby each individual acquires attitudes, values, skills and knowledge from the educational influences and resources in his or her own environment and from daily experience. The formal education is likewise based with curriculum that as well comes with awards and degrees .
According to Andrew Lindsey, it is not so important for a person to learn facts. He argues that one doesn’t need to go to a college and that anyone can carry a book to read about facts but true education involves developing critical thinking skills.
The concept reflected in the theories of some scholars. For instance,Karl Marx who propounded the Marxist theory which is on capitalism , the idea of capitalism was not basic on the learning of facts from schools. It is the ability to train the mind to think after seeing things within his immediate society, he came about the idea and at such which has been used mostly in the world because it goes along with some countries system, the idea was beyond the learning of facts in classes alone . Similarly, Niccolo Machiavelli who was regarded to be the father of Realism theory , the idea of realist theory was not on the basic fact of classes although Niccolo Machiavelli was literate but the idea was brought about due to the issues in this society which was on the fact that both the ruler and the ruled needs to understand alot of things before they can live in harmony and the ruler shouldn’t be concerned with his reputation. Machiavelli opinion was that a ruler should give priority to what is good for the state rather than what is moral or immoral. These case of studies was just to showcase the concept that education also encompasses training the mind to think and not only about learning of facts.
Albert Einstein —a theoretical physicist also buttressed the concept that education is not only about learning of facts but the ability to train the mind to think , he was emphasizing on the important of critical thinking and problem solving skills over memorization of facts . He believes that ,by training the mind to think, individuals can learn how to approach complex issues, make connections between different concepts, and develop a deeper understanding of the world around them. He thereby encourage people to question the information they encounter as well as questioning fact because not all facts are true and through this measure, it would make people grow beyond facts learnt and help them build up on training their mind to think which would help to solve alot of societal problems .
There’s a known perception that history is about learning facts . But in proper research work,historians , while often seen as fact-finders doesn’t deal with all facts. They analyze the basic truth of the fact because not all facts are meant to be true,but because historians are trained to think and analyze the truth of the story at such they bring out the concrete evidence in a fact due to their exposure and trained mind . This helps them have a great research work or project .
Many intellectuals believed that the curriculum of schools are outdated but one can still make good use of this idea depending on the ability of the person to train his or her mind and not limiting himself or herself to the basic of facts that is learnt in classes alone . With clear fact ,it’s seen today in the media world that a lot of argument has happened on different topics and cases which has been won by the great thinkers because of their abilities to explore more knowledge and not limit to facts that’s learnt in classes alone .
In African societies,one vital quality of a good leader is the ability to think and handle issues effectively. Education should therefore not only focus on teaching facts but also on developmental critical thinking skills. Students should be trained to know that learning fact is not all but the best form of growth is their ability to train their mind to think and at such it would help the society to grow and will help solve societal problems and issues.