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Purpose of Education

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Purpose of education

Education is considered to be a very important aspect of every individual’s life. Education acts as a tool that shapes each individual’s life. In general there is no single definition of education that fully defines what education is. Different scholars in the field of education define education in their own different ways. However, most of the definitions of education converge at the acquiring or passing of knowledge, skills and behaviour from one individual to another or through an institution such as the family, school or the society. The word education is derived from a Latin word e-ducere which means “leading out” and therefore it means leading out from the darkness of ignorance to the light of knowledge (Bailey, Barrow, Carr & McCarthy, 2013). In the formal setting education involves studying of a variety of subjects to learn new skills, habits and acquire new knowledge. It is usually divided into pre-school, primary school, secondary school and college or apprentice. For the purpose of this paper therefore education is defined as the practice of passing knowledge mostly in schools and colleges.

The purpose of education in the society has been a matter of major debate among different philosophers of education. Education performs a very important role in an individual as well as the society. In our present society people look into education for everything. Different people think there are different purposes for education. Depending on the person talking about education the purpose could be political, economic or social. This paper looks into purpose of education according to different education philosophies as well as my own thoughts on what I think is the purpose of education.

There are three main

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