Educational issue

I believed that we have to learn from the best to stay ahead in education race. We live in world full of challenges. No matter what a person does there will be keen competition. It is the keen competition that takes a person to the top, in all walks of life.

Let us explore the definition of education. It is the building and development of character and to train individuals to have the ability to earn a livelihood. Building and development of character is to cultivate good qualities like: honesty, intelligence, courage, humanistic values of life, love, patience and other important qualities. The second objective is the ability to survive or succeed in achieving one’s goal in life.

Learning from the best to stay ahead, is not needed in education if its purpose is to cultivate one’s character. However, if the goal is to enable individuals to enter one profession, and to be successful in the profession of their choice, learning from the best is needed. Hence, people may face competition. This will cause one to do one’s profession well for a long time. People of different jobs (doctors, engineers, businessman, etc) do better in their jobs when they face tough competitions. They get to learn from other people’s mistakes and thus able to work better and more efficiently.

“We want to make sure that we are up there with then, riding the crest of the waves rather than being swept along in the small streams.” Stated by education minister, Tharman Shanmugaratnam. In my opinion, he is indirectly saying that we cannot lag behind others but we have to compete with and learn from others in order to be the top. Thus, not only we have to learn from others but also need the ability to compete with others.

Competitions start from individuals during their schooling days. They are the make up of individual’s mind. In order for individuals to be successful in their careers, they also have to achieve excellent results and the fame he gets from what he does. I feel that in order to learn from the best well, and to apply them, it is best to cultivate individuals during their schooling days. After learning has taken place, so as to be better than others, we have to challenge ourselves and improve the ways of others. Instead of riding the crest of the waves, we fly above it. I believe that learning from the best is not enough as our standards would be equal to them. Instead, we have to improve and invent new ways to be ahead.

In our modern society, many types of competitions are available in schools. Such as service-learning (who done more for the society), cultural programmes, tests and examinations (to show their best abilities in academics studies) and lastly, sports and games. Hence, learning from others and coping with challenges need to be developed in their schooling days in order to last throughout their life.

Learning from others can be difficult for some people. Although learning from others is a need in education, care should be taken when doing so as it may lead to unhealthy results. It can lead to harmful results if individuals’ expectations are not practical and do not know their limitations. For example, a student who is talented in mathematics compete with another student who is not talented in the subject, other variables are the same, most likely is that the former would be able to compete successfully with the latter. There is a chance of the student, after many disappointments, becomes thwarted or losing his interest in the subject. This would affect his mental and physical health. Therefore, individuals have to access their limits and what they are capable of achieving. This happens as it is the nature of man to strive for the top.

In conclusion, while it is important to learn and compete with the best, we have to adhere to certain rules and principles to help us know our limits and potentials.