Revisiting the purpose of education

"Iwent out with a friend the other day, having lunch, catching up, and talking about everything and nothing that was going on in our lives. She said this one thing that stuck in my head for a while; she said that her 'ultimate goal' in life is to get a PhD. She was resolute on that. 'And then?' I asked, wanting to know what she wants to do with that degree. She looked surprised by my question as if she never even imagined that anything would come after. She gave a vague answer that she will eventually figure it out," recollected a student currently studying BBA at IBA, Dhaka University.

Many young adults in Bangladesh and across the world often set their life's aim to obtain a certain degree or a standard of education, but most have no clue as to what to do with their career. Education, the purpose of which is to coach people for their lives and careers, a means to reach their aspirations, has become the aspiration in life for many people.

Now, this hurts them. In Bangladesh, for example, most students graduating high school want to get a public university degree and do not even care about the subject they would be studying. Moreover, people who are studying what they want to may not know what career path to follow from that and are just running after the next level in degree. A result of this is that graduates do not know what path to follow after their education comes to an end, and usually end up in confusion, frustration, and unemployment. Moreover, people go into careers which do not correlate with the subject they spent studying for years on end, which makes their degrees nothing but a piece of paper as they have to learn everything anew. "I spent six years of my life studying Mechanical Engineering at BUET, and now I do software business," said the CEO of a software development company.

It is not that degrees are unimportant, or that higher education does not serve a purpose, but in some cases, the young adults spend so much time on formal education without even getting educated. What everyone needs to realise is that one may need to focus on figuring out what he or she wants to do with the rest of one's life to achieve more considerable success in life. Success is never measured by the standard of education a person has accomplished, and at one point everyone graduates. Therefore, without a career plan ahead, degrees do not amount to much at all. "I spent 28 years of my life in school, college, university, and now I do not know what to do anymore," said an individual who is quite frustrated with his unemployment.

There comes a time when every young adult has to leave the comfort of finishing a degree and beginning the rest of his or her life. Moreover, when that time comes, it is better to have a plan and a set of goals and ambition, with actual skillsets supporting him or her, than to be utterly clueless about what to do out in the real world. People will finish their degrees someday, but then the rest of their lives begin.

Another thing to keep in mind is that academics are entirely different from how the real-life applications work. Doing well academically does not necessarily equate to high performance in one's work life. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to hone one's skills side by side with getting an education. "I went to the best business school in Bangladesh. I studied so many management and marketing theories and graduated with a CGPA 3.81. The first few months of my job, I unlearned the textbook theories and learned essential basics,"said a senior marketing executive of a private company.

Core reasons for such problems are-- there is a lack of career guidance for most students in Bangladesh, familial pressure to reach a high level of formal education, teachers and professors promoting that success relies solely on the degree one achieves. The world population has forgotten that education is meant to enrich knowledge, instill values in people, and provide guidance in reaching the highest ambition. Moreover, when education does not serve its purpose, not only does it affect the personal lives of people, but it also has an inauspicious effect on a country's economy and its development. It is time to ensure that the young generation stops making the mistake of merely having a certain degree as their aim, but instead focus on having goals for themselves in whichever career they would like to have. It would make their own lives far happier, and be beneficial to the society as well.

The writer is a first year student of BBA programme at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), University of Dhaka. She can be reached at [email protected]