{"id":41277,"date":"2024-09-13T21:23:55","date_gmt":"2024-09-13T17:23:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/?p=41277"},"modified":"2024-09-21T20:06:59","modified_gmt":"2024-09-21T16:06:59","slug":"education-is-about-life-long-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/education-is-about-life-long-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Education is about life-long learning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Musings<\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

By Dr R Neerunjun Gopee <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

A couple of weeks ago over lunch I met up with two former classmates who were with me at the Royal College Curepipe. They were both visiting from abroad. One lived in Geneva and had had a career in aviation, the other who had in fact been the laureate of our 1957 batch had settled in Toronto as a physician after studies in London. We were meeting after quite a few years, and at that time there were about 7 of us.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Understandably, much of our conversation was about reminiscences \u2013 of those who had passed since the last meeting, and of others about whom we exchanged whatever we knew regarding their whereabouts and careers. Inevitably, the talk turned towards our teachers. We shared our favourite stories, impressions, and jokes about those who had most marked us. Since both my friends had lived and worked abroad, unlike me they hadn\u2019t had a chance to catch with any of them after leaving school, whereas I was able to do so as I returned to practise in the country. I told them about my later encounters with a couple of our teachers.<\/span><\/p>\n

All those who go through the educational system will have come across teachers who have made a difference in their lives \u2013 fostering interest in a particular subject, inspiring them to give the best of themselves and to aim higher and higher, or influencing a career choice as happened in my own case. They valued their teachers\u2019 experience and pedagogic skills. But those who were passionate about their subject and transmitted that passion to their students generated an emotional connect which heightened the latter\u2019s respect \u2013 even awe \u2013 and liking for them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Down the generations, to this day, and in spite of the pervasive feeling that there has been a gradual but sure general degradation in many aspects of the educational system, there have been and always will be teachers who will be remembered and talked about long after their students have left school or college.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, while our teachers may have equipped us to pursue a career, it is only as we go through life and have to fight our way through circumstances and different situations as we strive to earn a living that we perforce realise that there are other skills that we need to cope and move ahead both in our chosen career and in life generally. These were not taught to us in the formal school system \u2013 they had to be picked up the hard way in the multitude of experiences that we continuously undergo, consisting of both failures and successes, minor and\/or major, depending on our expectations. In other words, it does not take us long to face the hard reality that education in the true sense of the word is about life-long learning.<\/span><\/p>\n

These reflections came to me after I had parted ways with my friends. As I looked back over my own career and life to date, I imagined myself as a teacher facing eager students poised for a take-off on their own life course and pondered what all I would pass on to them besides the specific subject matter. In fact, I have also been involved in nursing and medical education, in the course of which I have had to propose some life lessons to my students as they approached their final exams, readying themselves to take the leap into the wide world, of seeking work and pursuing career and building a family.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Towards this end, I have collected a few thoughts that, I hope in a more general sense, can help prepare students of whatever category to better face the world. I leave these to their appreciation:<\/p>\n