LITERACY IS NOT EDUCATION

An extract from The Radical Road Map for Undergraduates.

Another reason for writing this book is as a result of most students and parents’ perspective of education. Some people don’t know what education really is, and knowing education is the genesis of how to be educated, and the lack of this understanding has indeed rendered most of our students and graduates unemployable. It is no doubt that majority of graduates today are UNEDUCATED LITERATE. This is because literacy is not education and education is not literacy…

Somewhere back in this note, I say, job standard does not change, though what we have in our society seems to prove otherwise because jobs opportunity keeps asking for standard and quality education. The fact that jobs are demanding for standard and quality education does not mean job standard has increased. This we need to understand: job standard is never built on academic level, but on educational capacity.

Some might say, “But we have graduates with educational capacity who are jobless in the society.” I believe that is true, and I also believe that many of these people have also applied for many interviews but are never called upon thereafter. When you ask why? Many interviewers would tell you that it’s because many of them don’t have the education. Understand this, saying they don't have the education does not mean they don’t have good results, as matter of fact, most of them are high-scored students while in school.

Then, there is need for us to understand what education really is, and what most of our present students are busy getting from schools if not education.

Be clear…
Don’t get it wrong between literacy and education. Literacy is not education and education is not literacy; the two are quite different and the same time inter-related because there is education in literacy, and literacy exists in education, but it is possible to have literacy (literate) and not have education (uneducated) making uneducated literate, and vice visa!

What is education? What is literacy?
Education is the know-how knowledge and information in a, and about a particular profession. So when you educate somebody on a profession, it means you give to that person doing-knowledge and information and instruction of that profession. The giving of the knowledge can be orally and it can be through signs. Moreover, we understand that education only takes place when the receiver understands what is given to him or her and can use it. Education is not the mastery of the means - which can be oral or sign - through which education is given; instead it is the mastery of information carried by the means.

Literacy is said to be an ability to read and write, and literate (Verb of Literacy) is being able to write and read. What we read and write is letter (Alphabet). Now, when combinations of letters are used, it is meant to show something or to describe something and the letters themselves are nothing without the ‘something’ (information) they contain to show. That SOMETHING is education, which therefore makes literacy - written or spoken - a means of giving education.

For instance, if I write or say, ‘Kill a goat’ and you don’t know what ‘a goat’ is or don’t know what ‘kill’ means, you may go ahead and ‘keep a goat alive’, and thereby miss the education - to kill a goat - which is given or passed across through literacy - spoken or written.

So beneath literacy is an action expected to be performed and that is education - performing the real action the literacy describes. Education is the spirit of literacy which is seen or heard. And education begins from brain and mind which are not seen, and ends with a correspondent performed actions. No wonder God says, “Letter kills, but the Spirit gives life”. This is what most of our students are busy doing, cramming the literacy without any effort to understand what the literacy meant to give. This book will help you.

Don’t get me wrong…
Don’t get it amiss. Literacy is very important in education; inside literacy is education, but don’t give your 90% to what is outside (literacy) and only leave 10% to what is inside (education). You have probably heard it saying, “It is easier said than done!” ‘Say’ here is the literacy and the ‘Do’ is the education. Society needs the two, but it needs the do (education) much more than the say (literacy). Though the ‘say’ has its place in the society and that is school where literacy is more valued and where there is a greater chance for those who have more ability to use literacy in a particular field. And this is one of the reasons there are many graduates in the street who can describe and analyze with words but lack the clue on how to describe or analyze practically - they master the means without getting the information.

There is an education also in literacy, and those have it develop their own literate products - writing papers (if lecturers) and publishing books. Those who lack education in literacy of their said studied field are those who never have their sayings or practically contribute to the field, but keep depending on what others have said already. Anybody whose profession requires the use of literacy without their own literacy on the profession lacks education in literacy.

There are different types of education in the society, (more on that later), and each type of education has their literacy, that is, the means by which each education is given. Now many of those who go to school to acquire education will only go there and cram the literacy (while few memorize the literacy). And they will come out with highest grade (based on the literacy produced), apply for vacancies, and get invited for interviews (based on the grade received on the literacy produced), then they are asked during the interview, “What will you DO to help this organization grow? For this question some could go into a complete silence, some could babble, but few could talk their way through. Why would some go silent and some babble? It is because the question does not ask, “What will you SAY to help this organization grow?”

Many of our undergraduates and graduates spend their best good time in school cramming words of certain authorities of a particular field to please their lecturers without any effort to find out the reality of such words through actions - practice. It is not only lack of qualifications that makes one unemployable; lack of skills is also one of the reasons. Most of the unspecialized skills among these skills are available in all higher institutions for students, but 95% of our students don't just care or don’t even know where and how to acquire them.

This book will show you how you can escape the trap of unemployability and also show you ways to be more employable after your learning in higher institution even though you are committed to having the literacy which is the mirror of your education.

You need to develop your own literacy
Do I sound condemning purpose of literacy in education? I think No! Please don't get me wrong because I know that your education is average without literacy. Or what is the benefit of knowing something without the ability to say or write about it.

This is what I am actually saying…
The present school leavers and undergraduates who later become graduates are in the habit of building themselves to become champions within their individual higher institution. I will say they build themselves for the school, instead of society, and when they get back to society they get confused when it (society) rejects them.

How students build themselves for school

• When they read only to pass exams.
• When their only style of knowing is to cram.
• When the only books they read are the ones for their classes.
• When they read their lesson notes only, and ignore other parts of the schools.
• When the only lecturers they know are the ones that teach them in the class and to whom they only pay attention while they completely turn their back against the ‘lecturers’ (which are discussed in this look) who would have trained and given them information needed to be relevant in society.

When students do only these their literacy will be that of the school which can only be useful, perhaps, within the school and this is the reason most of our first class students are mostly retained to become lecturers in their schools. But how many students as these are employed or retained by the school, may be 10 in 2000.

Note: Not all first class students build themselves for school, but 90% out of 100% do so, who become UNEDUCATED LITERATES - they know what to say, but can’t practice it.

I do not condemn the importance of literacy in education. I studied English Education at College, and I am the Chief Coordinator of G-ASHelen Orientation Services and, as a speaker, I have worked with a number of NGOs whose purposes and missions are to help people understand the reality of things around them. Now, I talk with people on different occasions using literacy, but not telling them what a noun or an adjective is - that is the literacy of English Education. Millions of people have that literacy, and society can only recognized the highest holder among them, those who can twist them around and bring out something new from them… and that is part of the things you will gain in this book: how to make new out of old; how to develop your own literacy either on your studied course or on general knowledge. You need it, and this book will show you where to develop it in your chosen higher institution.

Read also THE RADICAL MEANING OF EDUCATION and THE REAL MEANING OF SCHOOL along with WHY MUST I GO TO SCHOOL? and not without understanding the answer to this question DID MY SCHOOL PREPARE ME FOR SOCIETY? and HOW TO BE A FIRST CLASS STUDENT AND STILL BE STREET WISE, also an extract from the same book The Radical Road Map for Undergraduates. Go back home.