What does the Purposive Education Encompass? | Daily Writeup | Opinions
The following article, “What does the Purposive Education Encompass?“, is written by Ammar Hashmi, a student of Sir Syed Kazim Ali. Moreover, the article is written on the same pattern, taught by Sir to his students, scoring the highest marks in compulsory subjects for years. Sir Kazim has uploaded his students’ solved past paper questions so other thousands of aspirants can understand how to crack a topic or question, how to write relevantly, what coherence is, and how to include and connect ideas, opinions, and suggestions to score the maximum.
The actions of a state regarding its educational policies define its direction. It describes whether education is becoming a great enabler or creating a great social divide. Undoubtedly, an ill-structured educational approach can never become a great enabler for any state. Thus, purposive education is imperative for the progress of a state as it encompasses economic, political, social, technological, and cultural domains. In terms of economic aspects, it boosts entrepreneurship culture among the masses and instils in-demand technical skills that help them overcome poverty on a larger scale. According to the NEC index, the UAE tops the list, representing the development of entrepreneurship culture in its masses. Moreover, in the political sphere, purposive education helps make citizens aware of their political rights, thus improving the country’s political culture. According to the World Bank, voter turnout stood at 97% in the Turkmenistan presidential elections in 2022. Therefore, states around the globe should undertake meaningful reforms like enhancing educational spending, overhauling the curriculum, and investing in research and development to overcome the hurdles in promoting purposive education to achieve their desired targets. To conclude, developing countries should focus more on fostering purposive education to move towards sustainable development. This article elaborates on various domains of purposive education and provides ways to promote purposive education across the globe.
“When you are still immature, you are a heap of dust; when you ripen, you will become an irresistible sword.”
Allama Muhammad Iqbal
Before exploring the meaning of purposive education, it is pertinent to understand its essence. Education is the differentiating factor between humans and other creatures worldwide. Thus, purposive or purposeful education refers to an educational approach designed with specific goals, aims, and a sense of purpose. Moreover, intelligence, courage, and vitality are the outcomes of purposive education. Therefore, it is necessary to bring about societal change, especially in developing countries.
Understanding the importance of purposive education, it plays a vital role in the progress of a nation in every aspect of life, whether economic, political or social. The most significant component of purposive education is the investment in human capital. It encourages the state authorities to direct their masses towards a more systematic approach where they can be utilized more accurately. Purposive education serves as a ray of light for a state’s individual and collective progress. One most significant example is the Scandinavian countries, where literacy rates are above 99% and show high socio-economic indicators. Thus, purposive education is an undeniable fact in the progress of a nation.
After discussing the significance of purposive education, it is pertinent to address the current status of purposive education in both developed and developing countries. The developed countries have changed their fortunes by implementing purposive education in true letter and spirit. This is evident from the example of Germany, which strongly emphasizes STEM education and encourages students to undergo vocational training along with formal education. However, most developing countries are still way behind in thoroughly implementing purposive education. This lag is restricting their growth and development in all aspects. Considering the example of Pakistan, the concept of rote learning is still prevalent on a large scale. Moreover, Pakistan’s education system does not promote thorough inclusivity or learning objectives like PLO or SLO-based systems. These factors paint a bleak picture of purposive education in the developing countries.
After discussing the significance of purposive education, it is imperative to understand what it means. In the economic domain, the first and foremost meaning is promoting entrepreneurship culture in society. Various developed and rapidly developing countries have shifted their focus towards entrepreneurship to encourage innovation and creativity in their population. According to the National Entrepreneurship Culture Index, the UAE ranks at the top with a score of 6.8 points, followed by Switzerland. These countries thus enable their masses to gain an education that can benefit the individual and the state in progressing leaps and bounds.
Second, purposive education means instilling in-demand technical skills in a country’s youth. Many countries have uplifted the status of their masses through these vocational skills. China is the best example of this. It imparted such skills to its populace, replaced foreign labour with its own masses, and hence uplifted them beyond the poverty line.
Third, purposive education includes boosting training about modern means of earning, like e-commerce and freelancing, to enable the masses to earn money from around the globe without moving physically. According to Statista, China’s e-commerce market has grown to above $3 trillion, thereby showing the importance of purposive education for a country.
Moreover, in terms of the political domain, purposive education means making the masses aware of their political rights. Purposive education urges the masses in Turkmenistan to vote in their presidential elections with a voter turnout of 99%. On the other hand, the absence of purposive education restricted the voter turnout to just 58% in Pakistan’s general elections in 2018. Thus, purposive education enables the masses to play an active role in the political development of their country.
Additionally, purposive education means developing critical thinking skills in the masses. These skills enable the masses to question their leaders and state authorities about their legal rights and restrict them from engaging in corrupt practices.
Regarding the social domain, purposive education means fostering civic responsibility in society and encouraging the youth to participate in community services. It enables the populace to understand their role and the impact they have on society. Collectively, this will foster a sense of responsibility, and everyone will work for the betterment of society.
Moreover, purposive education connotes the creation of an inclusive environment without prejudices in society. It promotes tolerance and empathy for one another with different races, languages, and religions. This, in turn, boosts collaboration between people from diverse backgrounds and promotes harmonious co-existence.
Furthermore, in terms of the technological domain, purposive education means promoting STEM education to bring out the raw, innovative skills and creativity of a country’s masses. This is evident from the WIPO’s World Innovation Index, which ranks Switzerland as the world leader in innovations for the 11th time in a row. These innovative skills help individuals and the state bring about change at a macro level.
Besides, in the continuously evolving technological landscape of the world, purposive education enables the masses to adapt to technological advancements. By enhancing adaptability, the nation stays in the league of modernized nations and stays on the road to progress. This is evident from the progress of most developed countries, such as Germany, France, the US, etc, thus exemplifying the real mean of purposive education.
Likewise, in the cultural domain, purposive education means promoting cultural awareness among a country’s populace by helping the masses recognize and appreciate the cultural aspects that influence their lives and surroundings. This is evident in developed countries, where masses migrate for the job and educational purposes, and cultural intermingling occurs. If there had been no concept of purposive education, they would have been fighting against the invasion of their own cultures. Thus, purposive education is what enables them to undertake peaceful co-existence.
Likewise, purposive education promotes cross-cultural communication and interdisciplinary learning. It enables the masses to respectfully dialogue with people from diverse backgrounds and bridge cultural differences. Moreover, it incorporates various disciplines like anthropology, sociology, history, art, etc. to provide a holistic approach of cultural understanding. The preceding section of the essay highlighted the meaning of purposive education in various domains, such as economic, political, social, etc. Now, it is pertinent to propose some ways, especially for developing countries, to promote purposive education to ensure a nation’s lasting progress.
First, the governments of the developing countries need to consider their educational spending. In a report presented by the World Bank, most developing and developed countries spend less than 3% of their GDP on education. It was also proved by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics that the authorities have set aside just 2% of the GDP for education. With such less educational spending, providing quality education in government institutes at all levels becomes nearly impossible. Thus, as a first step, increasing the educational budget can be a positive step towards promoting purposive education.
Second, after enhancing the educational budget, the authorities must only put aside a significant amount for research and development. By sparing a separate budget for R and D, states around the globe are, in fact, encouraging students to express their creativity and solve the burgeoning problems. Doing so can also help in import substitution by developing technologies at the local level. Thus, giving due importance and budget to research and development will promote purposive education.
Third, the state authorities should promote inclusivity and equity in their education system. A significant concern regarding education in developing countries is their separate standards, even for educational provision. These standards promote exclusivity regarding education. Thus, the states should focus on providing similar education to everyone regardless of their background or abilities. Also the states should cater to the diverse needs of the student population and provide the necessary support. It also includes reducing the number of out-of-school children (like Pakistan has 23 million) because inclusivity is nothing more than a distant dream without it.
Fourth, developing countries should shift their focus towards upgrading their outdated curriculum and re-designing it according to modern requirements. Most developing countries, like Pakistan, are still teaching about floppy disks and Windows Vista, which are no longer relevant nowadays. Thus, upgrading the curriculum can promote purposive education in the country.
Fifth, after overhauling the curriculum, the state should focus on training teachers according to the modern syllabus and teaching techniques. This will allow the teachers to impart a much-needed and relevant set of skills to the country’s student population.
Last, the country’s educational institutes should collaborate with NGOs and businesses to keep their students engaged in productive activities. The businesses will give them an opportunity to work and closely monitor whatever they are studying, and the NGOs will provide much-needed community services and help make the students civilized and responsible. Thus, these collaborations will also boost purposeful education in the country.
All these and many other steps should be taken as soon as possible to promote purposive education, which will, in turn, help the country progress in terms of economic, political, social, technological, and cultural spheres of life.
Education serves as the baseline for a country’s development and sustainable progress. The educated youth in the country can have a significant constructive impact. However, on a macro level, there are various hurdles in implementing purposive education in developing countries. The most significant one of these is the economic issue. According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), Pakistan’s educational spending has declined to a mere 2% of GDP; the same is true of many other developing countries. These economic hardships limit developing countries from reaping the much-needed benefits associated with purposive education. However, the state authorities should undertake various concrete steps like fostering public-private partnerships in devising educational policies, overhauling the curriculum, and engaging the students in co-curricular activities like community services. These factors will ensure the thorough implementation of purposive education and ultimately help achieve the desired socio-economic progress.
To sum up, purposive education means to promote a competitive culture after defining a specific goal for the nation. These parameters boost creativity and innovation among the masses and enable them to solve complex local-level issues. Alongside this, it enhances the status of human development in society and leads society towards sustainable and lasting socio-economic progress. Furthermore, purposive education boosts the state’s technological development by providing outcome-based STEM education. These technological advancements help the country in every sphere of life and reduce the country’s dependency on imported technology. Still, there is a significant gap in implementing purposive education in developing countries in true letter and spirit. To do so, the government should mobilize the maximum available resources for establishing research and development centres to promote a healthy education culture to enlighten the darkest aspects of society. Thus, purposive education is a compulsory tool for society’s economic, social, political, and technological development.
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