Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Issue of education


When we think about education, we often view school in a traditional, formal sense. Many people believe that true learning can only take place in a formal classroom setting. Others feel education occurs in many different forms and environments. There may not be a definitive answer to the question of, ‘What is Education?’ However, we can start thinking about the purpose of education. Is it to educate youth to be responsible citizens? Is it to develop individuals, as well as society, in order to ensure a society’s economic success? Or is the purpose of education to simply focus on developing individual talents and intelligence? Perhaps it is the balance of all three that defines education? While our answers may differ, we can perhaps agree that education is a basic human right. When that right is granted growth and development, the society as a whole is more likely to improve in areas such as health, nutrition, general income and living standards and population fertility rates.The information in this section will prompt you to think about some very important issues surrounding the topic of education. As global citizens of the world it is our responsibility to critically think about these issues and attempt to come up with solutions to the problems plaguing education. In 1990 UNESCO launched EFA, the movement to provide quality education for all children, youth, and adults by the year 2015. Seventeen years later much progress still needs to be made if we are to achieve the goal for 2015. The unfortunate reality is that for many countries, larger issues precede improving the quality of education. How can we achieve the goals of EFA when numerous countries around the world are faced with challenges that seem far too impossible to overcome?

Features of education


Universities are playing an increasingly more important role in society. Australia and China are great countries in the world with Australia being a model for western and English-speaking culture and China representing an eastern culture. This article looks at both of the countries, comparing and discussing university values, governance and changing trends. The article raises some new views or theories about higher education development. For example, the concept of broad-sense knowledge; interaction has a strategic position and meaning for university development; efficiency of innovation, mastering and applying knowledge are the most important factors for a country's competitiveness and so on. At the international level, it is highly important for the university-enterprise to look at research as the key to developing universities in Australia; it is also more important to develop higher education more quickly and better in China. The university-enterprise will be the main trend to develop higher education. It will become the fourth stage for university development in the world.