Education: A Powerful Weapon of Change - Nelson Mandela

In her last address as the United States Of America's first lady, Michelle Obama kept reiterating the need for good education. In all her speeches to the young people, she never descended the podium without telling them the importance of good and sound education.

I can't forget her last speech where she said that with good education, you can aspire to be anything in the world, even the President of the USA. This touched me.

In my school days, my lecturers, in their bid to encourage (and threaten) us to study beyond the school syllables, always told us that the school can only give us 30% of the education we need. The remaining 70%, we have to get ourselves through ardent reading, studying, researches, observing and of course, experience.


This fact always got me dazed. Why do I have to pay heavily, just to receive 30% of the education that I need to run my life? Why not just bypass formal education and go out there and just grab the 70%? These are good questions but a friend was kind enough to shed the light of information on my confusion.

He said that without the 30% given to me in school, I won't even know that there's a 70% that I will need. In other words, the 30% which I get from formal education is my foundation. Without the foundation, any structure I try to build will not stand. Case closed.

With good education (good, not expensive), you are placed on equal level with your mates. And you get the chance to compete for any position you want - despite your background.