THE IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION.
1. Introduction
Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world and for self-enlightenment. This is so because quality education equips one with capability to interpret things rightly and applying the gathered information in real life scenarios. Quality education entails the following aspects; learning resources, technology, program enrolled, modules done, lecturing methodology, attachments, qualifications, co-curricular activities, performance awards, students and lecturers perspective in the institution operating management also their opinions and appraisal toward education (Hammond, 2013). Tertiary institutions have over the years been erupting in Francistown, and as of recent there is up to about 13 tertiary education facilitators in Francistown ( Mikulas, 1977). The purpose of education has been and always will be to empower and impart skill and knowledge in leaners, thus it is important that the education one gets has to be of certain quality. Quality in education is important given the fact that what a person learns affects their philosophy “mind-set”. Thus saying that the education one gets affects their day to day lives depicting their lifestyle and the decisions they make on a daily basis. Psychologically, learning is said to have occurred if there has been a change in behaviour of a subject, meaning that a person acclimatizes to what being taught. This statement provokes questions like; could education be used as a tool to forge a well-rounded and employable graduate? If at all there was a certain amount of quality in education facilitated by tertiary institutions, would this affect the graduate’s employability? These questions portray the interest of this paper, to investigate the importance of quality in education and to find out whether Botho University provides such.
Zooming in on Botho University, it was established in 1997 as one of the first tertiary institutions in Botswana. Botho University is driven by the core values of excellence, leadership, and innovation, and aims to become a centre of excellence in higher education. It has three branches in Botswana: Francistown, Gaborone, Maun campuses and one in Maseru (Lesotho). Botho University is accredited by the Human Resources Development Council (HRDC) and all programmes offered are accredited by the Botswana Qualifications Authority (BQA) and the Council on Higher Education (CHE) in Lesotho. As of current Botho university offers programmes through four faculties namely Faculty of Business and Accounting, Faculty of Computing, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Faculty of Education and Distance Learning. It offers courses from certificate level to Master's degree level and has over 6000 students and almost 500 staff members.
Definition of terms
• Quality- the standard of something when it is compared to other things like it, how good or bad something is.
• Education- Is a process of teaching, training and learning especially in schools or colleges to improve knowledge and develop skills. Also it can be defined as it is an interesting experience that teaches you something.
• Perspective- is defined as a particular attitude toward something or a way of thinking about something (viewpoint).
• Sustainability- involving the use of natural products and energy in a way that does not harm the environment or the current situation and that can be continued for the long time.
• Job market – a pool of potential employers willing to buy a services, skill/ qualifications.
How to improve quality in education
In a response to tackle the lack in quality of education tertiary institutions should engage, project based learning where students get to learn hands-on, this would insure that they learn beyond context of textbooks (Edutopia Team, 2005). The advantage of this initiative is that students would know field experience unlike the traditional book-based lecturing where students are more likely to memorize the content not mastering it. Institutions should consider apprenticeship for teaching and lecturing the aim being to equip lectures with experience and teaching skills before getting to work. While improving quality tertiary institutions should consider adapting to changes in technology blending technology to learning through different platforms. Neal and Gonch, (2013), Tertiary institutions should revise their core curriculum and ensure that it meets required standards. It is very imperative that quality of education facilitated by tertiary institutions should be of certain standards.
The great Nelson Mandela once said “education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world.” Its importance is immeasurable because it is a self-enlighten up process for a life time as added by Victor H, (n.d). This is so because quality education equip one with capability to interpret things rightly and applying the gathered information in real life scenarios (Victor H, n.d), therefore it wipes out the wrong beliefs from one’s mind and that makes one be civilised and innovative. In summary, quality education is important in anyone’s life, to have it, access to it by all means for sustainability.
Methodology: This paper seeks to discover the importance of quality in higher education and also to investigate how far do Botho University do offer quality in education. Questionnaires were used to collect the data from students in Botho University Francistown campus. Questionnaires were distributed to students to fill in as this was convenient and was time saving considering data collection and analysis also this gave the respondents an opportunity to answer freely and honestly knowing their identity would not be revealed. Questionnaire was divided into three sections.
Section A: This section consisted of the demographical questions such as gender of the participant, level & course of study.
Section B: This section consisted of Closed ended questions addressing the extent to which Botho University provide quality education which should be rated from excellent, good and fair. The other question was does the quality of education one get influences their employability which should be answered by a yes or no. The open ended questions were stated as strengths and short comings and suggestions of the institution in providing the quality education. Reasons for how the quality influences one’s employment. Lastly in this section were the suggestions for the institution to provide well rounded and employable graduates.
Section C: In this section the questions were on a Likert scales of 5 ranging from strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree to strongly disagree.
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Results & Discussion Results analysis
The questionnaires were distributed to students.
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