A wise man once said that education is not a preparation for life; education is life itself.

Throughout the years, education has become an essential in everyone’s life. There are students

from as young as preschoolers to as old as postgraduates. The point of education cannot be stressed

enough. It is more than just acquiring knowledge and skills, but it also provides enlightenment,

wisdom, and character. However, in today’s modern society, negative views of education have

arisen. People seem to think that education is not as important as it was before. Education has been

taken for granted, but it is still the cause of why a lot of people are successful. The problem is that

people today seem to think of education as a business instead of as an institution for learning. If

this continues, then everybody will forget the purpose of education as a whole and going to school

will be useless. Education has turned students into slaves rather than curious learners.

The essence of education is not merely to prepare students for life but to enable them to

think logically and act compassionately. The point of education is to supposedly form logical and

critical thinkers. Nowadays, students tend to memorize the different topics discussed in class.

Memorization is the lowest form of learning. It does not enable students to think; instead, it teaches

them to be like parrots. They memorize without understanding the topic and just repeat what was

discussed. Students also no longer have the curiosity to learn. Nowadays, students are too focused

on the grades on their report card that they forget the true purpose of education. Another point of

education is to teach students the values needed in life. Although academics are important, that is

not all education has to offer. Educational institutions, like Jesuit schools, aims to not only educate

students but to form them into people who are willing to help others. In What’s so great about a
Jesuit education, Martin talked about cura personalis, magis, and being men and women for others.

These are three of the many values that should be acquired by students.

Money and other financial resources have turned students and proftt-oriented businessmen

into slaves of education. Some students, especially the underprivileged, merely go to school to find

a good job. This contradicts the whole point of education which is to enable students to think

logically and act compassionately. Some students do this because there are some jobs, like nursing,

that are in demand abroad making it easier to emigrate from the country and earn more. If this was

true, then it would be better off to scrap universities and colleges, and the country should focus on

building nursing schools and teaching functional English. Another point is that educational

institutions have become business enterprises. In Good quality education over profit, Bautista

stated that “good” universities should not be erased from the academic map. He also stated that

some businessmen do not care if they produce “robot-like” individuals as long as they earn millions

of pesos. Bautista’s definition of a “good” university is a university that focuses on good quality

education. It is unfortunate that there are some businessmen who wants to erase those universities

from the academic map, for it will make it easier for them to acquire and operate those universities.

It is unfortunate that due to money and other financial resources not only students but businessmen

as well become slaves of education.

The irony is that the system of education today contradicts what it had hoped to originally

achieve which is to educate. This is due to many factors; one of them is academic and
extracurricular pressure. Nowadays, students seem to have this mindset that they should do well

in studies and extracurricular activities. While there is nothing wrong with that, sometimes it

becomes too much. In the end, students give themselves unnecessary stress and expectations to

excel. This can also lead to certain health issues like sleep deprivation. There are times when

students stay up all night just to finish a performance task or study for a test. This can also lead to

certain ethical issues like academic dishonesty. Due to the pressure, students end up doing

unethical things just to excel. This can be cheating on a test, collusion, bribery, and plagiarism.

This kind of pressure is not healthy. Educational institutions should not provide an environment

where this is being practiced because it only leads to issues that are detrimental to the student.

Education should be an institution for curious learning not a prison for slavery. Education

and slavery are two words that no one thought would fit so well into one sentence. Unfortunately,

the system of education today has no longer given students the freedom to truly learn. The point

of education is to think logically and act compassionately. Students seem to forget this and just

focus on excelling in school which leads to academic and extracurricular pressure. Money and

other financial resources have also turned both students and profit-oriented businessmen into

slaves. The educational system of the Philippines needs to be changed. It needs to be an institution

where the students and teachers are bound by a common interest which is education. Students need

to be curious to learn and teachers need to be excited to teach. Different educational institutions

should not focus on the profit of the institution but the quality of education and formation it aims

to provide. The same goes for the students; students need to change their mindset that going to

school is only to look for a job. They should also learn to not take everything so seriously that it
gives them academic and extracurricular pressure. The system of education needs to be changed

in order to give education back its true meaning and make it an institution for curious learning.