What is compulsory education?
Since we are born we are all educated. We are all led to think or do certain things. Like it or not, education is inevitable. That is why the claim that it is also mandatory is surprising. Unless the obligation does not consist in educating oneself but in doing it in a certain way.
There are almost as many definitions of education as pedagogues who dare to define it. But many of them agree that it is a conscious and systematic intervention on people to develop their potential and guide their behavior.
Education has two aspects:
Education, therefore, has two aspects. A personal aspect, and a social aspect. Through the first, it is tried that each one learns what suits him best and is in harmony with his singularity. While the second one seeks that what he has learned is what society is interested in. The different styles or ways of educating differ in the priority given to one thing or the other.
Schooling, for example, is a style of education that focuses on the social. It is the official and regulated way that current communities have of transmitting and perpetuating the knowledge, behaviors, attitudes, and values that sustain them. Although the school is a recent invention in the history of mankind, as are childhood and adolescence, as we understand them now.
Until relatively a few years ago, schools were not the majority form of education. Those who had the privilege of acquiring knowledge. That was not strictly necessary for the survival or learning of a trade learned guided by tutors or within a monastic community, not necessarily religious.
The Universities or their equivalents were communities of students and teachers with a conception and operation. It was similar to that of the other medieval guilds. The trade that was learned and protected in them was the trade of studying.
All this changed with two revolutions and two ideologies. That became simultaneous and in a way complementary. The Enlightenment, Mechanism, the French Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution.
Those who held power, be it political or economic, found in the school the most effective tool for the training of subjects or citizens to measure. It is in this context that the idea of compulsory education, of a certain type of education, begins to take shape.
An obligation, that of mass schooling, which is now conceived as a right and a social achievement. The right to integrate into the current educational model having the same opportunities as others.
But the facts show that the opportunities are not the same. Even if they are, the model does not work for everyone equally. Because the way of being educated to which one is entitled in our country produces 23.5% of early school leaving. So that almost a quarter of young people between 18 and 24 years old leave their studies as soon as they can. They take this decision with or without a professional degree.
Many would say that they do not want to make the effort to continue studying. But it could also be said that they do not want to be further educated. Or at least they are educated that way. And both the rejection and the lack of effort. That are possibly inseparable, have been brewing for a long time, from the first years of the school experience.
We are also talking about extreme cases. Because the problem is more evident if we take into account the repeaters. That 40% of students who at 15 years of age are a year or more behind the established parameters. And it is even more evident when we consider the continuous growth of disruptive behavior. when it does not overtly sabotage or challenge.
It seems clear that in the face of the compulsory nature of this type of education. And possibly any other, there is resistance. That can only be overcome when what is now conceived as compulsory becomes considered a responsibility. The one that each one has to learn and facilitate the learning of others.
Meanwhile, if it is still considered that it is necessary for everyone to learn a minimum. That personally and socially is needed. It should be more flexible both in the minimum itself and in the way to achieve it. Because what has not been achieved in school may be achieved outside of it. With fewer people and in other spaces.
If what we are looking for is that every person is educated. More than minimums we should be talking about maximums, of all the potentials that each human being could develop. That is where responsibility lies. If the educator and the educator were aware of this. They knew that this potential is being developed. The obligation would not be necessary.
For this communication to take place, the relationship between the one who wants to learn and those who promote it must be personal. That is not excessively governed by external regulations but is based on commitments. We are talking, therefore, of a tutorial educational system.
This is the challenge: replacing or modifying the school system by another broader system, in which the classrooms would not be excluded. However, neither would they be the centerpiece, in which educators would be less responsible for a specific subject and more than some students in particular. A system in which communities were so intertwined with their schools that it was difficult to pinpoint where some ended and where others began.
Why is compulsory education important?
This importance requires significant expenses from the Public Administration. It is not only important that all children in the country have a guaranteed school place. But also that teachers can count on the moral and human resources to be able to serve each child according to their profile of educational needs.
In recent years, important advances have been made in the public education systems. But although politicians’ speeches give importance to education. There their desire to improve is seen is in budget items. As a country, we still cannot believe the importance of compulsory education for our future. Otherwise, we would look at compulsory education with more interest and intensity.
What is the purpose of compulsory education?
What is compulsory education and its purpose? Education is the best source to bring change to the world. Nothing can transform a person’s life like education. Inspire confidence and give people a voice. In addition to its obvious benefits for a fuller and better life. Education can contribute to the betterment of society as a whole. It can build a society in which people are aware of their rights and duties.
We think that education should influence the integral development of the person. And for this, as we pointed out in the report “Education at the center”. It is necessary to overcome more instrumental or economistic conceptions of education.
A report was made as proposal based on the four pillars of learning. Learning to learn, learning to do, learning to be, and learning to live together. Also it offered a basis for the debate on which choices should be made and perform in policy formulation.
These pillars must be understood as a whole and not as individual components aimed at feeding different educational strategies. It would not be appropriate. For example, to develop cognitive competencies disconnected from the ethical and social values that guide the construction of more just societies.
This vision is closely aligned with the moral and intellectual principles that support the idea of education as freedom. Who, in her model of education for democratic citizenship, points out three essential capacities that should be acquired through education. Thought critical ability to critically examine one’s self and one’s traditions.
Also global citizenship, the ability not only to perceive themselves as citizens of some local sphere but also as human beings united to others by bonds of recognition and correspondence. And creative understanding, thinking about what it might be like to be in a different person’s shoes.
In today’s world, these approaches are still fully valid. Societies face intractable questions about the future and sustainability of the planet. The innovative responses that individuals or groups can give to these changes and challenges. It will depend in part on their knowledge and capacities to understand the problems they face and to propose and implement lasting solutions from the recognition of common destiny. Also the commitment to social justice. Education plays a central role in this process.
Strengthening in the children, youth, and adults of today and tomorrow this sense of belonging to a global community, of shared citizenship, willingness to assume collective responsibilities to address the complexities and controversies of a common destiny, should constitute the most relevant purpose of The education.
What is compulsory education with advantages:
This gives the students a basic and most important exposure. It works like the foundation for them. It can also be anticipated below (3-6) or extended above. With the inclusion of Baccalaureate and Vocational Training.
The Institute, within the framework of the public school, not only articulates levels but also projects, cultures, dynamics and personal itineraries, and life projects. Its potential lies in three closely interrelated areas: the student body, the educational project of the center, and the teaching staff.
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