THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION THROUGH THE EDUCATED PERSON

Dear student, your education is not just for you; it is for your community and nation. 

If you become truly educated by taking school and other avenues of education seriously, you will be of benefit to the world around you in the following ways:

1. Spreading Knowledge: one educated person can lift many out of ignorance. Professor Wole Soyinka, Nigeria’s Nobel Prize winner in Literature, didn’t stop at being educated—he used knowledge to teach, write, and inspire millions.

2. Correcting Wrong Practices: harmful traditions like the killing of twins (stopped in Calabar through Mary Slessor’s influence) or female genital mutilation are challenged because educated people see better alternatives. Education empowers you to stand against injustice and harmful customs.

3. Recognizing and Solving Problems: an uneducated trader may throw refuse into gutters, causing flooding. But an educated person understands the science of waste and can propose solutions. Nigeria needs educated problem-solvers, not just spectators.

4. Modeling the Right Way: truly educated people inspire others. Malala Yousafzai used her education to campaign for girls’ schooling worldwide. Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, now World Trade Organization Director-General, shows how education can lift a Nigerian woman to global leadership.

•Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General, WTO.

What does it mean to be truly educated?

Some Nigerians hold degrees but lack wisdom, responsibility, or good character. They only “passed through school” without letting education pass through them.

Being truly educated means:

•Applying your knowledge in real life.

•Growing in wisdom and discipline.

•Maintaining a diligent approach to every endeavour.

•Using your education to solve problems, not to add to them.

For example, a graduate who starts a small, honest business that creates jobs is more truly educated than one who cheated to get his certificates and still manipulates his way into and through career.

Of which sort will you be? 

Someone who will be truly educated by letting school and other training pass through you, and becoming a person of value through the process? 

Or, will you be someone who just takes your schooling casually and does not deliberately seek to grow? Someone that conforms to the negative influences around them?

Please, choose life. Choose the godly, diligent, and honourable path of dedication to growth. May you receive help to become truly educated. Amen.