It is becoming a common observation that for the average parents and also, those within the low-income bracket, their children may not have a bright future if they do not have access to quality education. More interestingly, even for the affluent families, education has been considered as a basic need and without it; many people seem to agree that some of them may not be able to manage their families’ wealth. In that regard, we can affirm that we are living in world of crisis, and in an era in which everything is changing and is unstable. Our imperfect world is changing relentlessly into a world of imperfect scenarios; as a result, we must re-direct it towards sustainability. In other words, it means we must change the way we do things so that we can improve our environment while at the same time, achieving economic stability, social equality and justice. However, it is not possible to achieve these changes without continued learning, same as it will not be possible to learn without changing. Our heterogonous and diverse society of the new millennium is characterized by a range of internal crises such as the environmental crisis and unsustainable practices, threats posed by globalization and finally, the crisis of democracy. The results of these crises include the exacerbation of economic and social inequalities; social structures penetrated by independent-making operations. Today, the challenges of education are as a result of the lack of creation of a knowledge society, where the emerging problems being faced in the modern world should be solved through collective intelligence. As a result, addressing the issues affecting education in nationwide will be more effective than focusing on the performances of individual student in different institutions.

Challenges and various Interventions

In order to understand the term challenges affecting education, it is important one should understand the meaning of the term education, or what it means to say that a person is education. There are different views that have been raise when defining the term education. Some people have defined education as the process through which a person passes through the levels of learning institution in order to acquire skills and knowledge that can be used development of the society. Sociologists have emphasized that for one to be educated, he must be able to use all the knowledge that he has learned in school to coexist peacefully other people regardless of their differences. As such, in the beginning, education was intended to create a “perfect” citizenry. Later, the objectives of the education were shifted to ensure that the citizens were well-trained. Recently, the education system has been used to make people develop knowledge based on critical spirit. Today, the objective of education has shifted to creativity, innovation; the capacity to learn and the willingness to change learned experiences accordingly for new inventions. The idealism of creativity has lead to the creation of societies in which people have the capacity to be creative in an environment of uncertainty. However, they have been incapable of managing the cognitive dissonance which has given rise to their failure to understand reality. Kkyu declares that if education will not be taken with precaution, it will equip people to become more efficient vandals of the Earth; instead of forming a constructive partnership, in which people should believe in the dignity of every human being without exception. As a result, there should be institution change at the international level by encouraging corporation across the borders on major challenges that are facing education today. As Einstein once said that there is no single problem that can be tackled based on the same consciousness that created it, as such, education should be view in a new way (Gudmundsdottir, Björk and Vasbo 56-90).

Some scholars have argued the higher education has been demonstrated to be crucial in introducing progress and change in the society. Nevertheless, as UNESCO states, the higher education should advances in prospection of improvements and trend, by promoting networking among institutions. Others have shared different views such as the importance of elementary secondary education, including the United States. As such, there is a worldwide consensus that the secondary education is important for the well-being of the individuals and the society and as a result, they have proposed that it should be made compulsory through some age. In United States, for example, students aged between16 and 18 should have access to the elementary secondary education. There has also been the focus shift the access to education by ensuring that there are many schools in the rural areas, instead of concentrating on building the learning institutions in the urban areas. Gender equality, education for students with special needs and communication and information technologies have also been the main concern for also been institutional leaders in an effort to deliver quality education across the borders (¨tzky and Nokkala 370).

However, there are numerous challenges that have been facing the education sector. These challenges include inadequate communication and information technologies, teaching and learning processes, inadequate budgets and children with special education needs. Despite some learning institutions have been focusing on ways of improving the education sector by providing the necessary teaching and learning processes, there are other challenges that have been affecting the student performances. Research findings have revealed that 70 percent of students in national reading tests score poorly due to the lack of reading proficiency. Other studies have further indicated that the poor performances in the education sector have been due the challenge in identifying the underlying problems that prevent the students from learning (Bybee 50-100).

A report by the National Education Association Today (NEA Today) of 2015, it has revealed that many countries are facing classrooms that are literally bursting out at the seams. For instance, in Georgia, the classrooms have not been enough to house students with the courses that the school system provides. In the midst of major funding cuts, the classrooms have also been impacted, making it difficult for the teachers to teach effectively. Another challenge that has been affecting the education sector is poverty. According to the 2010 UNESCO report, it has revealed that 22 percent of children in the United States live under the poverty line. American Graduate has defined poverty as a family of four which cannot afford an annual income level of about $23, 000. The students who have been living below the poverty have been forced to drop out of schools. Studies have also shown that students who do not get sleep or food are less likely to have good performances in education. Despite the efforts to provide education as the basic essential, administrators and teachers know that poverty among some families remain the biggest challenge that obstructs their children from accessing education (Bybee 123).

The family factors also play an important role by influencing the ability of the teacher to teach the students. As a result, principals and the teacher have agreed that what goes on at home affects the students’ ability to concentrate in class. For example, divorce, violence and problems of single parenthood, are some of the challenges that impact students’ propensity to learn. While teachers try to work in less than ideal family environment, they should try to partner with the parents of the students to ensure the students’ performances are not affected by the family matters. Furthermore, technology has been a learning demand of the 21^st century in the education sector. Students today are more technologically advanced than teachers, making it difficult for the instructors to teach new concepts in classroom (Chawla, “3 Challenges Facing Online Education Today”). In the modern world, children love technology which destructs them from concentrating in school work. The main challenge affecting most learning institutions is that that fact that when teachers do not the techo-savvy to compete with the technology devices, they may find it difficult to bring technology education together. As a result, this may not keep the students’ interests and attention to the school work (Sen, Mullick, Chakrabarti and Das 280).

Moreover, the challenged that has been affecting education lack of funding that can help teachers to bring computer and other technology devices into classes. Bullying is not a new problem; rather, it is one of the challenges that have profoundly affected the learning aptitude of many students today. Technology has observed as a most widely used avenues that most bullies use to cause distress to the other students. Cyber bullying has been considered as a serious problem in schools, confirmed by the high rates of suicide by students that are associated with bullying events. Bulling in schools affects students’ behavior and attitudes towards such as disrespect and apathy to teachers. The National Center for Education Statistics has reported that challenges such as disrespect, absenteeism and apathy pose significant challenges for the teachers. The parents’ involvement has been a paramount to the students’ performance. Teachers often find that that the lack of the parents’ involvement leads to no happy medium when it comes to parents’ involvement, lowering the performance of the students. For instance, some parent will not be seen in the entire school calendar, facilitating the interfering between the student and the education process. For the education system to be effective, the teachers and the parents should be fully involved in the monitoring of the student’s behaviors and attitudes which directly affect their performances (Bybee 52).

Education experts and policy makers have identified several factors and challenges that have to be addressed to on national education. Their main focus has been to improve the current education system so that it can meet the demands of the skills and products needed for the countries’ developments. The participants and delegates have considered that sufficient funding can improve the education system as well as produce skills and competences relevant for the society’s development. In addition, experts and planners have identified matters such as early child development, leadership in education, science subjects and information technology and communication as the overriding challenges that needs to be addressed for the education system to be perfected. Other issues that have been identified include the vocational training school supervision and accountability and strengthening of the school management to promote effective educational system (Bybee 258).

However, people have come up with varying opinions on challenges that have been impacting education. Most parents consider the value of education that they would want their children to have is determined the school choice. In fact, there has been debate on the quality of education that is offered by the public schools, private school and the home schooled children. For instance, some people have made the presumptions that the public schools have been ‘failing their children’. As a result, families have been raising concerns regarding the lack of funding, teachers’ shortages, overcrowding, violence and the lack of moral education in public schools. As a result, in the recent years, the popularity among the private and the home schooling has risen over the public schools. Recent studies have shown that over 5.5 million students in United States have been attending the private schools, which is approximately 12 percent of all students. In 2012, it was estimated that 1.7 million children were homeschooled in the US, which represented 3.4 percent of the same number of children who attended charter schools.

Another issue that has been on the people’s agenda is the perception that femininity does occur in isolation from masculinity. As a result, in many cultures, boys and girls have been subjected to undue pressure so that they can comply with the laid down norms based on gender differences. For instance, in some cultures, girls endure unwarranted discrimination, domination and social control. There are some cases in some cultures where the girl child is not supposed to have a high level education on the belief that they may not respect and be faithful to their husbands. As a result, they are forced to married after they have completed the elementary secondary education. On the other hand, boys also suffer from stereotyping that is found in the male dominated society. In some cases, they are not allowed to be emotional since they are presumed to take the roles of being the providers and the protectors of the family. As a result, some cultures consider education the male child to be a process of directing meaningful and substantive transformations in the community (Bybee 142).

However, the issue of femininity and masculinity should not exist in isolation. In other words, the power and the construction of one, depends on the power and the construction of the other. Scholars explain that that gender is neither given nor natural; instead, they have been naturalized to under the duress of norms that have been laid down by the society. As a result, gender should not be used to set up specific focus on a particular group that should be devoted to education, while marginalizing the other. In educational perspective, the construction of knowledge should cut across the gender relations by educating both the male and the female child on equal education standards (Bybee 25-45).

Furthermore, people should also not rely on the notion that seeking education away from the public schools may not be the only right track towards ensuring better education for their children. Instead, there are other factors that influence the performance of the students in schools such as the class size and the teachers’ expectations. Theories such as the symbolic interaction theory explains that when teachers identifying those students as ‘high performing’, it is likely that the students will perform better, which is associated with the private schools (Schildkamp, Lai and Earl 83).

Conclusion

Most of the challenges mentioned above can be summed up as weakness of the education system embebbed in curricula, policies, programs, pedagogy, inadequate resources and the learning population. As a result, new interventions should be put in place to control student behaviors, the influence of the internet, funding, and training of the teachers and the adequate provision of resources required for an effective education system to be achieved. Furthermore, due to the turbulence being experienced in the education sector, there have been other going concerns such as the increased competition. As a result, education reformers have been redesigning reforms such as No Child Left Behind, in an effort to strengthen the public education.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

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Gudmundsdottir, Greta Björk and Kristin Beate Vasbo. Methodological Challenges When

Exploring Digital Learning Spaces in Education. New York, Springer, 2014. Print.

Chawla, Kunal . “3 Challenges Facing Online Education Today”, U Climb Higher, (2015).

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Schildkamp, Kim, Mei Kuin Lai and Lorna Earl. Data-Based Decision Making in Education:

Challenges and Opportunities. New York, NY: Springer Science & Business Media, 2012. Print.

Sen, Paramita, Pinaki Dey Mullick, Gopalkrishna Chakrabarti and Arnab Das. “Emerging

Challenges and Consequences of Evaluation Process in School Education: An Ethnographic Insight”, International Journal of Multidisciplinary Approach and Studies, 2.1, (2015): 276-288.

¨tzky, Anna Kosmu and Terhi Nokkala. “Challenges and trends in comparative higher education:

an editorial”, Springer. 67, (2014): 369–380