Nelson Mandela said: ‘Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. As the Covid19 pandemic continues to drag the world into uncertainty, we have all started to feel the aftermath of the crisis. Companies are closing down, people are losing their jobs and economies are crumbling down. People are scared, afraid to death, worried, and stressed beyond the limit. Help is being organized for the most vulnerable, but until when? The whole question is not anymore about the vulnerable ones only. The question is about each and every one of us. Everyone, or mostly, is at risk – the risk of losing one’s job, risk of inflation, risk of scarcity in essential needs, risk of all kinds. What is the solution?
Well there is no magical solution to remedy the crisis we are all in, but there is a need for hope and encouragement for a better tomorrow. When the mindset is right and positive, people will be able to think and generate creative ideas to fight the consequences of the Coronavirus. The first thing each one of us needs to do is to calm everyone down – panic and worry won’t help. When people have hope, they generate another kind of energy, the energy of creativity and innovation, and this is what we need at this point in time. This calls for Leadership at all levels.
When people have been calmed down, they then need to grow and strengthen their resolve. And for that they need education. I am not talking about academic education here, this we need to qualify for a job, but I am talking about the kind of education we need to live a life of success and significance. Call it executive education, self-education, professional education – we are talking here about personal development and self-leadership. As Martin Luther King, Jr said: ‘The function of education is to teach one to think and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.’
Inequality is one of society’s biggest challenges. But much of that debate has centered on the inequality of income and wealth; much less attention has been paid to inequality of opportunity for high-quality education. Yet, inequality of education is a driver of income inequality. It is high time we consider providing for education for developing the human potential, whatever be the academic level of the people.
Our educational system has to provide for the strategic development of the human being. It has to start at the basic level, namely at pre-primary school and spread along with all the levels until the person graduates from University. Self-development and self-leadership are important for a comprehensive education. Only academic education does not shape the human being to face situations like the crisis of the pandemic. People need to be mentally stronger and tougher in adversity and they need to think creatively and innovatively in the face of crises. But this is not given, it just does not happen by itself. People need a PLAN for Growth. And the whole administration of the country needs to take this into consideration when we are planning for the future. And if I am not mistaken, the yearly budgetary exercise is one that is planning for the future, right?
So my question is: apart from planning where we are spending what, are we planning how to GROW our people to the NEXT level, are we investing into the people from whom we are going to ask for more productivity, are we teaching our citizens how to become their better version? I am again not talking about quick fixes, nor about the timid engagement of adding value to employees through one-off professional courses, delivered to a slim portion of the nation. I am seriously talking about a NATIONAL PLAN for developing the most prized asset of the country – its people!
