Wisdom, Good, Heart

For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

-- Nelson Mandela

Courage, Fear, Learned

A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.

-- Nelson Mandela

Leadership, Nice, Others

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.

-- Nelson Mandela

Education, Change, Powerful

It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.

-- Nelson Mandela

Education is power Ful

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

How Education Strengthens Democracy

There is a major link between education and its influence on democracy, and that link becomes easier to identify when we essentially bring to mind that democracy is government of the people by the people for the people. Going by this popularly known definition of democracy, it implies that true democracy revolves round the people, and the height of citizen’s involvement will to a great extent determine what the people make out of it.

 Over time, critical studies have revealed that strong and stable democracies over the world are countries given to education, as there are no countries with poor level of education or educational system that have managed or sustained to be democratic for a long period of time.  On the other hand, looking through a list of developed nations with stable democracy, one would easily point out that these nations have a high level of educational system that have assisted them in maintaining a successful and well established democracy. It was Thomas Jefferson who said that “if a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”

True democracy stands for freedom from oppression and subjection. But freedom comes with a price; even the Holy Bible agrees that the price for freedom is knowledge. For it says in one of its books that, “you shall know the truth and the knowledge of the truth shall set you free” So that settles it that democracy which clamours for freedom cannot flourish without education.

Education enriches one basically with the ability to read and write, which enables people to communicate well and work collaboratively with others.  The ability of a people to work together helps a lot in defending democracy. The ability and role of an uneducated man with limited capacity to process information is absolutely incomparable to that of a learned individual in a democratic set up. It’s evidently clear that democracy cannot succeed in an environment dominated by ignorance.

I think many African leaders claiming to be practising democracy are aware of the connecting tie between education and democracy, and it won’t be out of place to say that they are deliberately impoverishing education system for their own selfish interest so ignorance can reign

Nigeria for instance still wallows in an educational structure that equips its youth for a world that practically doesn’t exist anymore. Beside that the present system is loudly inadequate, shallow and archaic, yet it can’t even be trusted to run optimally at its present inadequate and mediocre level.

For over two months now the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics have been on strike and the Federal Government is less concerned about such a nasty development. Well, it is not the first of its kind, there are records of strikes that lasted well over a whole semester and even close to an entire academic section while I was in school.  And the same goes for secondary schools as well. This shows that the Nigerian government hasn't realized that the country’s development can only spring up, first, by paying attention to the development of its human capital through an improved educational system.

Our falling educational system should be restructured such that it helps the youth to build self-reliance, hence turning them into idea generators who finish school not as “half baked” like employers tend to call fresh graduates; but individual who can come up with genuine ideas to tackle the challenges of the nation and that of the African continent.

It is quite amazing and appalling that our educational system has no regard or concern about instilling the habits of citizenship amongst its youths through civic education and the teaching of history. It is amazing that as a nation we collectively assume that we can achieve lofty heights without the knowledge and consciousness of our history. We forget that a nation without history, without collective memory is a country without a future! To stabilize our fragile democracy, we need a critical mass of the population to be active citizens. That’s a vital way to ensure that the government heed to the voice of the people.

 Therefore, citizens have to be well informed to be engaged in the polity, to this end, it’s imperative that we begin to advocate that civic education be included in the Nigerian education curriculum at all levels. This essentially would go a long way in ensuring that the youths acquire the basic knowledge and ideals to become active citizens in order to strengthen the survival of our democracy.

How to select courses of study for better career

This I write with especially Indian students in mind and other pupil for whom career with an option of monetary support is necessary. Out there are many courses for study and once taken the course defines a path of a career which might be very difficult to changes latter. So it is important for a student to be cautious in this angle of course selection.

Every student receives basic education during study which comprises of all subjects (social, science, mathematics, languages, arts etc) exposing him to the available knowledge in the country and the world. Most pupils during their study of these subjects have a preferential likeness to one or two subjects and rarely all of them. This likeness to those subjects is because the student has easy grasping, understanding, memorizing and better concentration in them than the rest of them. He also may like the teachers teaching those subjects, be even curious about the television programs, conferences, training & workshops happening around related to them. So it is very natural that he performs well in those subjects in the exams and future career.

But the career options when taken based on the interests have diverse consequences like changes with regard to his social position, monetary gains, stability, growth etc. So when these consequences appear to be unfavorable, then the person might lose his interest in the field which he liked before and may think of changing for his benefit. But this change is not so easy in many cases.

So course selection during especially higher education is vital and hence the tips necessary to decide career are.

1.     Consider the impact and contribution of the course to the society.

Let’s take some examples of great scientists who showed a real life example. Mostly science is considered to be a field where finances are meager even before discovery or after a great discovery. There were many scientists who died living poor. You can go through life of great people like Einstein, Newton or great mathematician like Ramanujan. They all had simple lives even after great fame and success in their field. This is because most of their work had impact on humanity and its knowledge and opened way for future development but not for their personal financial success.

But Thomas alwa Edison once invented an equipment and he was really exited about it. But he was disappointed with it because it did not bring him fame and sufficient financial support for his future projects.

This made him think and realize that he should not make any new invention without direct and immediate application and use to the society. So what everything he created from there on were all highly beneficial monetarily and made him very famous and also turned him to a very successful businessman who established one of the fortune 400 companies namely GE (general electrics). Most of the inventions also got patents and there by benefited his countries patent office immensely in terms of work and monetarily.

So this simple instance shows one how an application oriented thought benefits a person and not just his interest alone.

So while comparing this to present society trends. It seems courses related to direct human application like, medicine (even para-medical courses), engineering, arts (related to human time pass or fun like acting, singing, music, drawings (like cartoon), animations etc. are highly in demand due to their  trends like sufficient growth options, social contribution, monetary support out of the work, stability etc.

   2. Competition level an aspect to worry or not to worry?

Many of them seem to worry about competition. It might be true to some extent. But how can competition affect the extent of goal you want to achieve or work you can contribute. If you want to get through a competitive exam, how does competition affect you from scoring 100 out of 100 marks? And if you score 100 than how will you not be success in the competition? So one need to fear of competition in case you can’t perform well like due to aging or resources but not due to others…

3. Be-careful with advises you get or rely on to decide:

It is a natural tendency to listen to others opinion regarding courses, career etc. It is well-known that we need to listen to them but take final decision from our side. But there are many people who readily give advice. Among the advisers, there are three types.

a) Those who did it and know how to do and what is the present situation there.

b) Those who are in the field and partly successful but will be expecting greater success if one does in some way they did not see but just hoping so. Check for more details in these advises.

c) Those who are not in the field, but knew or heard from some others. These people advice, one must be really careful.

4. Think of financial support for your education & alternative options if any:

This is vital for everyone. There are many who can’t afford to study the course they desire to. Some can’t sustain long education as they may need to take up family business or responsibilities.

For the above two problems there are plenty of chances to still go ahead. There are many banks to offer easy education loans while also there are financial supports from government side in terms of fee waiver or financial support in terms of fellowships or scholarships etc.

If you have family responsibilities try to take some time to work for your family responsibilities and then come back. Or try to do it in distance education mode or do the course from place nearest to your home so that you can balance both duties.

5. Problems with some subjects or chapter or concepts:

This i specially mention here because, there are many students who left maths or social or science in their further study due their reluctance or uneasiness to those subjects though they might have been having a good potential in it.

In any course or filed you like to perceive, there will be one or more subjects or concepts which one feels tough to perceive or digest. But still one go ahead by some extra focus and understanding the  subject. Don’t just think to quit the course or field because you are unable to accept or digest or overcome that subject or topic in study or course.

6. Check for availability of the course, career aspect in or around your place.

There are many courses which may not be available or accessible (Ex: Astrobiology, Computer based art and designs etc.) due to lack of university or institute offering them. In such cases you may need to see for out side country for them to perceive. For this the options are to clear the requirements for getting admission over there like basic education, GRE, TOFEL, monetary support and other formalities before hand.