The Importance of Education for Empowerment
Education is often defined as a ‘process of facilitating learning’, or ‘the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, belief, and habits’. It has been recognized as a right and emphasized as important by many governments and nations around the world. From my perspective, the paramount importance of education for empowerment is revealed in two main aspects.
- Education for Self-recognition and Identification
To start with, education fills us with knowledge through which our inner emptiness is filled, leading us to be capable of developing and distinguishing good from bad through moral judgement. Meanwhile, education at an early age is the medium which can quench a thirst for realising potential. A person is shaped by education, developing our curiosity and realising our potential during the process, which contributes to our formation and identity. It is with the help of education that we can seek out our interests and choose the ways and directions of our lives. With this, we can set goals and strive to achieve them.
- Education for Learning the present & Affecting the Future
Education is playing a pivotal role in enhancing our full understanding of today’s multidimensional world. Through education, we are able to grasp an idea about the world around us. With the assistance of education, we can gain access to multiple cultures, beliefs and unique perspectives from around the world. We are able to form our own perspectives of the world based on what we have experienced and discovered through education. Through the assistance of education, we have the opportunity to embrace differences and diversity and be open, tolerant and engaged in our lives. As Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, highlights education has a vital role in helping young people achieve and encouraging them to shape the world and make it better for everyone.
Education is necessary and crucial for us, especially for young people who will continue to have a major impact and lead the development of society. As education empowers us to learn more about the present, it also prepares us for the future with practical skills and independent thinking, to gain a critical and objective perspective towards important topics which could possibly confront us.
What is the Response of the Royal Commonwealth Society?
We strongly advocate that education is of paramount importance for empowerment, heavily investing over time in cultivating the skills, innovation and creativity of people especially youth in the Commonwealth. We seek to do this through intensive corporation with educationalists, students and youth leaders from the Commonwealth nations.
Related Events and Campaigns
The Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition