Good education is a process that brings about desirable growth in the student. Growth – the change that one is able to see from year to year and evaluate. There are various kinds of growth that must take place :

1. Growth in the amount of knowledge and information about various subjects, persons and events.
2. Growth in the quality of that information, namely greater understanding as well as increased ability to apply knowledge to a wide variety of situations, and also developing one’s ability to think (Thinking means seeing new relationship between facts).
3. Growth in the number of skills and abilities one discovers and develops.
4. Growth in the interests of the formation of habits, values and attitudes – developing and pursuing personal interests and hobbies, some of which will become life-long assets; developing habits such as punctuality, regularity, order. Planning, self-reliance, especially developing independent study techniques or learning to learn by oneself, etc.

Developing values and attitudes such as active concern for the things of the spirit and for moral and spiritual values; pride in one’s country and eagerness to contribute one’s talent to national development; concern for others and their needs and rights; civic consciousness; need to arrive after excellence and to shun mediocrity; eagerness to use personal effort and resourcefulness as much as possible rather than look too easily to others for help.

As you go through your school year, you should ask yourself whether you are able to see growth in one or more of these areas. To the extent that there is such growth, your education is successful. But in the measure in which such growth is absent, your education is a failure.

Who is answerable ?

Obviously, all the three, most concerned with your education must share responsibility; your home, your school and you yourself. Those at home and at school help in your education, not so much by paying fees or by force-feeding information into an unwilling mind, but by providing and fostering a climate or atmosphere where learning can take place; where, by setting goals and challenges, by asking questions and leading you to self discovery, they help you in all the ways mentioned above; to learn facts (the least useful commodity); to learn to understand and to think; to acquire new skills and habits; and attitudes and to assess and adopt at any given situations.

To the extent you co-operate with your home and your school, you, the most important partner, whose education is the concern of the other two, will contribute most to your personal growth. In turn, you will be able to contribute significantly to the growth of society.