Education for society or education for the individual – which is more important?

For a long time, strong emphasis has been placed on education – whether it is parents taking time off from their busy working life to do hours of payless community service just to secure a place in a “branded” primary school for their child or the government holding countless debates just so as to make the education system a tad better. But what makes education so important that it is worth the sacrifices made for a good one? Education is vital because it benefits the society and more importantly, it helps to develop an individual.

Firstly, education is vital for the society. Many societal problems seek education as a solution. For example, racial harmony is maintained in Singapore by allowing young Singaporean to understand its importance as well as helping them to know about the different cultures. More recently, education is used as a preventive measure to certain problems, such as using the media to inform people about proper hygiene practice to curb the spread of the dengue fever. Hence, education is needed to heighten the people’s social awareness so as to create a better environment for the society.

Secondly, education is crucial for individual development. It plays a huge role in molding our character. For instance, education establishes the degree of discipline which in turns determines our attitude towards our tasks at hand. It also gives us the power of knowledge which helps us to make important decisions in our lives. Hence, our actions and choices are largely influenced by the education we have and thus, a good education is require for us to do the right things so as to be successful in life.

The sum of every individual makes up the society. So because our individual actions and choices are largely influenced by the education that we have received, education for the individual is more important because it provides the foundation for education for the society to be built on. If one is not well disciplined, he may not bother to do his part in practising proper hygiene standards to curb the spread of the dengue fever. Likewise, how do we expect racial harmony to be maintained when one has not even been taught basic respect to another fellow human being? Hence, it is important for the individual to be education before the education for the society to be applied.