GOING BEYOND THE MINIMUM STANDARDS – PART 2 – EDUCATION

In Part 1 of this series, we explored the standards we set as a society and started to expose that they are actually at a very minimal level.

We looked in Part 1 at Work Health and Safety (WHS) – and saw that what we accept WHS means is actually far lower than what it truly means in the workplaces we share and visit.

This week, we look at education. We accept that education is teaching us something we do not know, and delivering us a qualification or piece of paper we can hang on our wall that says that we are competent and have achieved something. An accolade, yes, but is that really what education is?

The fact is, our education system at present is about tick-boxes. Satisfy the boxes, attain the ticks, and you are said to be educated and therefore ready to go. But are you? Where is the real education in this?

In-truth education should be about developing us as people, helping us to grow to the fullness of our potential and to play our part in the whole society that we share. It is far more than a piece of paper, and it should be seen as highly valuable to all of us because it is (or should be) fostering and developing people so that they can bring their all and make a valuable contribution to the communities and society we are a part of.

When look at our workplaces, and education in this way, we realise that the standards that we set are really very basic. They are important – in that they set a benchmark, but in reality they fall short of what we really could, and should, have as our standards of behaviour and conduct in life.

The standards we accept in life become the quality we accept in life, as a whole. If we look at it like this, we start to see that our society operates at a pretty minimal level, because we accept a minimum standard.

Our standards, although very important, actually represent a level below where we should be operating at. We should set our focus and awareness on a standard much higher. If we do so, our workplaces and communities will reflect the increase in quality that will be a natural result.

Our Team teaches and operates to the highest standards. Meeting the minimum standards is a necessary by-part, therefore satisfying the minimum standards is never the final achievement. We set a very high standard in education because our students deserve it, but we also do so in the knowing that this is the level that all educational institutions should be operating at – truly putting the student first.

We work this way in the knowing that, eventually, everyone will receive true quality education: it requires an institution to demonstrate this is possible, first, to help establish what then becomes the new minimum standard of tomorrow – for all of us – which then makes our previously accepted standard as a society – unacceptable.