We all know that education is the key to a successful life, as education is something worth striving for, because it has no limit, once you start being inquisitive about it the more it gravitates you toward new chapters and experiences. Because everyone needs to Inquire and learn more, and that is a good thing because Allah commanded our beloved messenger Mohamed PBUH to say, “O Allah, increase my knowledge.” so It is necessary to determine the main purpose of education and the best possible way to attain it.
In the past, Greece has been a place for questioning, commenting, and debating about the world that surrounds us, a noteworthy example is Plato’s Academy which was a school where Plato used to give his students valuable life lessons based on his knowledge and experiences, a prominent student to graduate from his school was Aristotle, who was one of the greatest philosophers in the world. Plato’s academy was not a compulsory school but a place for exchanging ideas and critical thinking. The main thing was to achieve imperative goals like acquiring enough knowledge to effectively support oneself, the community, and the world in general.
The question that arises is, do Somali schools compare to that of Aristotle’s academy?! Of course NO, but we have a 12-year school system that offers more dialogue. Our education system has many challenges for both; students and teachers alike. Mohamed Ibrahim Hadrawi, who was a remarkable poet and songwriter, has a poem called “Dabahuwan,” in which one verse he explains the main hindrance that cripples Somali schools and is the sole root of our education problem. “My teacher was the head of my problem,” he said. At that time, Hadrawi tried to clarify and explain the factoring problem in our education system. Imagine when your teacher is the cause of your troubles and you are the victim of his misconduct, because simply he doesn’t know or understand what he is doing or teaching!
Misplacing or misunderstanding the purpose of education is another problem facing our education system. A government should know the type of a person it desires to nurture and be clear about which knowledge or skill he or she needs to be taught based on their abilities and preference. Otherwise, it’s a problem for graduate students since they don’t have any skills or tangible knowledge to compensate for the 12 years they spent in school just to get a Paper called a “Certificate” those twelve years were wasted on theories and Meaningless knowledge one will never need in his life, but unfortunately, students are obliged to take those subjects.
Our school system is a place where one learns useless things. Who is the first president of the United State? When did World War II start and end? Who is the inventor of electric light? What is another name for the Great Pyramid in Egypt? What’s the longest river in Africa? Tell me the length of our sea. Instead of learning how to use and benefit from it. In Somalia, which regions are rich in petroleum? In school, you are compelled to study how many legs a camel has. You memorize many things for which you don’t know how or when to use them. You memorize how many teeth a human has. You memorize everything. At the end of the day, and after a long span, what type of a person did those schools produce? Of course, they produce someone who is a container of impractical knowledge, to put it in another way, our education system produces a conveyer of Meaningless knowledge.
John Taylor was a distinguished American educator of thirty years, wrote an article called “Against School” after his retirement in which he explained that he had wasted many students’ time instead of imparting advantageous knowledge for 12 years in school, he also described one of the widespread problems he observed in his student’s which is carelessness about the importance of education: A student who didn’t understand the main purpose of education but only wanted grades to pass exams. “Who wouldn’t get bored teaching students who are rude and interested only in grades?” he said.
Many students in Somalia think like the above-mentioned students. So if you get high grades, it doesn’t indicate that your educated in that subject, but in reality, grades and the capacity of the person are not related to each other.
To sum up, the article describes how our schools operate and the primary distinction between our educational system and that of early Greece. Greece has historically been a place for innovation, knowledge, and questioning, whereas our educational system was only designed for memorization. I also delved into how Somali students only care about grades, why Somali teachers are at the heart of this problem, and how their way of teaching differs from that of Greek times. Our educational system needs to be revamped and altered, but this process will take time. However, I recommend that we develop and emphasize the skills required to increase productivity, by creating and funding technical schools.
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Author By: Ahmed Dhuubow
Contact: axmeddhuubow45@gmail.com
Disclaimer: This article & others appearing on the Public Opinion segment are exclusive to the author of the story and do not in any way reflect the views of Mustaqbal Media.
