INTRODUCTION
Education simply refers to the process of passing knowledge or skills from one generation to another or the acquisition of knowledge either through learning or through experience. The acquisition of knowledge and skills can be as a result of being at a school or any organization or institution.
Freedom is a state of being free. This means that a person with freedom is completely capable of living and acting as he/she likes without facing obstacles if and only if he/she does not go against the formulated or enacted regulations or laws of the respective place in which he/she is living. Freedom and education are not far linked since education has a very great impact to the freedom of an individual.
MAIN PART
The statement that only the educated are free can be supported positively by inferring various aspects. Albeit to a lesser extent some of the people have education but they cannot share their education to ensure that they are free. Although education increases the freedom of the educated, it is not actually that all aspects of life will favour educated people to be free. Also, some of the people with very little or without education can also use the little education or knowledge they have to exercise their freedom. In fact, the acquisition of education make people be aware of the importance of being free and thus make them struggle so as to ensure their freedom. The relation between education and freedom can be described by considering various aspects as follows:
Freedom of giving views and criticizing. It is obvious thateducation makes people capable of giving out their views as well ascriticizing. Giving out various views has a significant impact on the society since they make various people in the society able to know of large a number of issues that are important in the society. Through giving out views and criticizing, various issues arising in the society can be revealed including performance of people in various community issues. The educated people are only the ones who can give out views and criticize in various aspects.
Freedom of making decisions. Generally, the educated are the ones who are capable of making good decisions in many societies. This is due to the fact that the educated people are considered as the people who can think more critically hence the decisions that they make are considered to be very important and impactive to the society. Also, the educated people have more freedom of making decisions in the society since they are the ones who are considered to have knowledge and skills on a variety of issues and thus they can make useful decisions compared to those without education.
Freedom of opinion and expression. Everyone has the freedom of opinion and expression. This is ideally the freedom to hold opinions without interference and to share information and ideas through any media. The educated people are the ones who know that they have the right of freedom of opinion and expression and thus they can share this with the society. The opinions given by the educated people can easily be accepted and put into consideration compared to those given by the uneducated people. Also, the educated people can express what they have more clearly and confidently than those without education. Thus, the educated people can be described as being freer compared to those without education.
Freedom of choice. It is obvious that the educated have more freedom of choice compared to those uneducated. It is generally believed that the educated people can make a good choice compared to those uneducated. Due to this bad notion, the educated have been given more freedom of choice than the uneducated. Also, the educated have been given more freedom and chance of choosing various things in the society which generally put them in a safe and favoured side in the society.
Freedom of the press. This refers to the freedom of communication and expression through various electronic media and published materials. While such freedom mostly implies the absence of interference from an overreaching state, its preservation may be sought through constitutional or other legal protections. The educated people have more freedom of press since they can express or reveal something related to the state since they are capable of defending their views using critical points. For the uneducated, the opposite is true since even if they can express something interfering with the state’s interests they cannot defend their views in an appreciated manner.
Freedom of interaction. The educated are more interactive than the uneducated. Interaction is basically very significant in the society since it also plays an important role especially in service provision in the society. Interaction increases the chances of the society developing in both social economic and political aspects. Education plays a great role since it makes people more confident and thus become more competent in interacting with various people in the society.
Freedom of assembly. Education is a basis for bringing people together for a number of issues including making fundamental decisions. The educated people are the ones who are actually capable of assembling for a variety of purposes relating to their development. Uneducated people do not have or have very little assembly ability making them less impactive in various development issues. Assemblies can be held in various areas including political, religion and others and these are very important as decision making tools of the society.
Freedom of speech. The educated people have more freedom of speech than the uneducated. This is often covered by the same laws as freedom of the press, thereby giving equal treatment to spoken and published expression. There is no doubt that the educated people can give more powerful speech and can clearly express what he/she has compared to uneducated people. Also, the educated are given more attention in the course of their speech compared to those uneducated. In addition to that, the educated people have skills and knowledge of delivering speech thus making them capture more the attention of people who listen to them than uneducated people.
Freedom of privacy. The word “privacy” is sometimes regarded as untranslatable by linguists. Privacy, as the term is generally understood in the west, is not a universal concept and remained virtually unknown in some cultures until recent times. Most cultures, however, recognize it as certain forms of hidden or personal information that is not shared by a wider society. Many languages lack a specific word for “privacy”. Such languages may use a complex description to translate the term but in a simple way the term refers to a private life. This basically refers to a lack of restrictions in a person’s life. The educated people have more freedom of privacy in the sense that they have no interference or restrictions from others in their life. This is basically significant to the educated people since those who are not educated are not aware of the fact that privacy is their freedom.
Freedom of thoughts and feelings. The educated people have more freedom to their thoughts and feelings than the uneducated people. It is generally assumed and believed that the educated people have critical thoughts and feelings compared to the uneducated people. Due to this reason, educated people can express their thoughts and feelings more and with greater efficiency than uneducated people. The feelings and thoughts of educated people in many societies are given more attention and respect than those of the uneducated. Therefore, it can be generally said that the educated are free in terms of their feelings and thoughts compared to the uneducated.
CONCLUSION
Education is very important in both aspects of life. Many people have argued that education is the basis for liberation. In a real sense, education makes people aware of various issues arising in the society. People with education can easily accept challenges that arise in the society. Since education makes people capable of interacting with issues arising in both aspects of life, and since it plays a great role in making people play their part in an a well organized manner, it can be confidently stated that education is the basis for development. Education does not only play an important part in interacting with the issues arising in the society but also makes people aware of their rights and their freedom at local, regional or global level. Generally, education and freedom cannot be separated simply because education plays a lot in ensuring that people understand their rights and freedom thus making them struggle to acquire their rights and freedom.
_____
Featured on Vijana.fm