Education

Ever thought why some of the richest man didn't even finish highschool? Some didn't even went to highschool. In what sense is education important to us? I would still remember when my dad says that during when he was way younger, people who has finish standard 3 would be able to get decent jobs that can sustain a family. Soon after that, the requirement went up to the point where people would hire only those who finish standard 6.

Finishing form 3 is an exit for people in the suburbs--in order to get a job in the city. My parents who are rather successful now has finished up to only form 5. According to them, finishing form 5 is pretty decent already.

When I was still in high school, I've heard from some of the seniors who have graduated that they are taking diploma. It was said that to get better paid jobs, diploma is a stepping stone. Then there was the advanced diploma.

Finally, when I am in college--degree is an essential for people to get a white collar job. Despite all the effort, people are actually doing diploma then advance diploma and finally degree; just so they can get a job. When I am about to finish my degree, rumours or maybe just words spreaded through mouths of uni students--masters would get you further and get you a better paid job.

Then again, how true are all these? Have you ever given a thought about it? Why is the standard being raised to drastically? Is it really that important for us to study so much in our 11 years of education and to add another 3-5 years of higher education to find out that we would probably need to spend another year to two years getting our masters. How many professional out there in the market actually got their masters before they start working?

Isn't all this like a hoax where the education is turning into a money making industry? Jobs are popping up around the globe in relation to education. A decent university would hire about 200 staff at least? Text book printings, construction of universities, renovations, material/instrument/equipments for universities. Think about it.

If you can't get a job after acquiring your masters, where would you go? be a lecturer? or professor? or a tutor at the nearby university? Jobs are popping up to curb with all the increment of universities that are trying to make money. There are like tens of thousands of higher education institute.

In order to finish a degree locally with a acceptable cert or at least with a university that is accepted by the local industries/companies and employers--right after your SPM (form5), easily hitting RM45,000 (plus minus your books, assignment materials, transportation, and other expenses while getting your degree). If you do twinning of 1 year; RM80,000 , 2 year;RM120,000. If you were to finish all 4 years oversea, probably close to RM220,000.

Simpe maths, an average degree holder would have a basic salary of RM1,800 to RM2,800 (assuming you get a job). Deducting apart from all those expenses, savings and extra usage. How long do you think you would take to pay off your RM220,000? Do you think you would be able to pay off a loan of RM220,000 and still pay for your car/house installment? Is it necessary?

Let's switch view. Is all these education level a way of screening and filtering the vast amount of younger generation flooding the market? Higher competition? A 22 y/o guy would apply for this job that a guy without degree who took 3 years to get. The older generation would be threaten or feel unequal treatment.

Every year there are over a thousands and thousands of form 5 graduates. Where do they go? How many actually get a job? How many manage to go into colleges and universities? Are there enough well paid jobs for everyone? Imagine a job that only require you to finish SPM and the pay is like RM2,500. How many thousand of resume they have to go through? Vice versa, if they state that they only want people who has degree in related field--that alone would filter out at least half of those resume.

How has education come about in the past few decades? In my line of job, I get to go through list of schools in different states. The list just go on and on and on. The list printed out and stacked together (primary and secondary), it would probably become a yellow pages. The population on earth is growing exponentially, would "us" be just someone who's so insignificant because we just finished degree? People by then would have finished doctrate?

Imagine an ad in the classifieds,
"Doctrate in related fields or at least 2 masters. Salary RM2,500."

Alot of the things that we learn in uni or in the text books are things we often can learn right on the spot within a certain job through hands-on experience. With that said, I didn't mean to say we don't need to go uni or read the text books or have exams. We learn the basics in school and futher strengthen our foundation in college and universities.

All these ramblings are just partial thoughts of what I think and wonder. Someone came to my table, asked me a question and broke my train of thought. I totally lost what else I can further comment.

Is education really a need or is it a need instill in us by others? or perhaps forced upon us in this ever evolving world where the only stronger ones would survive?