Difference between schooling and education: These are some things that people would mix up as they tend to confuse one with the other without realizing that they are two different and probably distinct things.
While the other may mean something definitive, the other covers a whole ground of its own. However, because they are usually used interchangeably, especially in their respective areas, people tend to confuse them as being the same.
This article is essential, as we shall disclose their differences. Starting from their definition and brief introduction, down to their respective advantages and finally to their differences, we shall show you that schooling and education are far apart.
What is Schooling?
According to an online dictionary, schooling is simply a process of being taught in a school, and it is the process of being instructed, educated, or trained within a school environment. It could be an act of teaching.
From the above definition, it is safe to assume that it involves the process of learning within a structural institution. As we can see, schools exist in various corners of our society.
Though dating back to various centuries ago up to the time of the Ancient Greeks, Romans, and Indian Civilization, the school system was based on the social structure; that is, only the wealthy and nobles were allowed to attend school.
We have come a long way from those days, as being in school has become a fundamental right that anyone can exercise within a democratic society.
Also, it has been made more affordable and accessible with the new home school version, which allows people to learn from home what they should learn from the classroom.
It runs in the form of a reward system. When a child is enrolled, he or she has to go through the curricula available for that particular class or level. After sitting and passing the examination or test, they will be promoted to the next level or class. They must repeat the level, grade, or class when they fail.
The institution is generally headed by a particular individual or group of individuals who run the institution’s administration. At the same time, the class teachers or instructors take charge of the classroom and teaching the students.
What is Education?
Education is the process of imparting knowledge or skill through institutions or other methods. In most cases, it is considered a strong pillar of development for society. It can either be formal or informal, as the case may be.
Formal education is the aspect of education that allows one to impart knowledge or skill through organized, structured systems of institutions and schools. This is the most popular and widely canvassed aspect of education.
It allows one to learn from textbooks, resource materials, and being taught in schools or classrooms by a teacher or group of teachers who take turns to teach them based on pre-approved curricula detailing all the topics and subjects they have to learn.
Under informal education, it is the type or aspect of education that allows one to learn from an unorganized or primal existence as a human being. In simple words, it means learning from experience or interactions outside the four walls of a school.
In the days before the invention of formal education, this type of education was more predominant. It allows one to learn what he sees, hears, or perceives through his senses.
It has a unique system of generational learning that allows knowledge to be passed down from one generation to another. A typical example is the African folk tales which use made-up stories of the animal kingdom to impart words of wisdom and moral lessons to children or anyone being told.
Advantages of Schooling
Nowadays, many believe that schooling offers next to nothing as benefits. Some choose to forgo it, while others have chosen conventional ways of learning as the better alternative to what is allowed in schools.
The endpoint remains that the system offers benefits across various sectors or spheres of human interaction or existence. Some of the benefits which make it attractive include:
- Going to school gives you a better chance of securing an employment opportunity.
- With school, you can be confident that you would earn more salary than persons who did not have that opportunity.
- It allows you to develop relevant skills that would allow you to solve critical problems about your issues or that of the general public.
- Schooling gives you the knowledge and skill necessary to create a developed society.
- It helps your overall growth and development as an individual in your respective endeavor.
Advantages of Education
The benefits of education cannot be overemphasized. Owing to how come it may be, people tend to look past it or consider it as not having enough value for them. However, the truth remains that education has much value that cannot be passed off.
Some of these advantages include the following:
- It brings about enlightenment and broadening of one’s intellect, making them understand things and how they apply to other people or things
- It brings about growth and development to society through the enlightenment already garnered
- Education creates an avenue for socializing among individuals or groups of people
- It helps you to pursue your passion
- It allows for experimentation and diversification
Differences between Schooling and Education
As we stated earlier, some people may have difficulty believing any difference between these two owing to how interchangeably they are used. From our explanations above, it could also drive others to side with the former group and maintain that there is no difference between them.
However, irrespective of the fact that they may be similar or used interchangeably, they are both different in many ways. Despite how hard it can be to believe, there existent differences between schooling and education, and we shall be listing them below.
1. Education is made up of two parts or aspects, while schooling is made up of only one part: As we stated earlier, education has two aspects: formal and informal. Formal education is the aspect that allows you to learn or get imparted with knowledge and skill through institutions.
As a formal system of education, it involves learning based on laid-out curricula and procedures based on the system in place in the educational institution. Informal education, on the other hand, is a different aspect.
It allows you to learn not from formal, official, or approved structural institutions but from conventional sources. For instance, there is something known as “street knowledge,” which is like a code for basic, applicable knowledge about the inner workings of your locality.
The knowledge or skills obtained here cannot be taught in the regular classroom or schools but can only be learned through experience or close relationships with locals.
Another example of informal education is the African folktale. During pre-colonial African society, the absence of schools meant that learning could only be achieved through these folktales centered on animals and other natural creatures or creations.
Schooling has just one aspect, which can only be formal. We understand that people may be quick to relate schooling to formal education. However, it only applies to formal education and not education as a whole since it involves informal education, which does not apply to schooling.
2. Education conveys a more diverse and profound meaning, while schooling conveys a narrow meaning: When we talk about education, we are not just referring to schools and the things we learn from there; it covers a broader range of aspects of intelligence.
For instance, education can be seen in spirituality. When we talk about spiritual intelligence, we refer to the ability to decipher between the hurdles that may clog us in our spiritual endeavors.
And when we attend our place of worship, for those who are religiously affiliated, we end up receiving knowledge on how to go about our spiritual lives from the person who is the religious leader or officiator. That process is another form of education.
Another precise instance concerns emotions. Sometimes we may hear things like “emotional intelligence,” which entails understanding the emotional balance or imbalance of people around us, which will guide us on the way to act appropriately.
In the absence of this intelligence, the knowledge needed to impart it or ensure that the intelligence is achieved comes from another type of education that would cover this area.
The point remains that the well of education runs so deep that the more you think it does not apply to a particular sector, the more you will find that it applies to that sector or part of human existence.
For schooling, it is just one straight road with no shortcuts. This means that, unlike education which has various aspects or areas, schooling involves a formal, straight learning process that can only be achieved in a stipulated institution.
3. Education can be both formal and informal; schooling can only be formal: Schooling can be described as a medium through which education is imparted. Owing to this, it is not surprising how people can quickly consider them as being the same thing.
Some would argue that since schooling bears the attribute of formal education, it should be regarded as the same as education; hence, there is no need to try and consider them different.
While it is understandable that the school system can be described as a form of formal education, it is no secret that alone can justify it as being the same as education.
Schooling and formal education are closely related because they impart knowledge and skill through institutions and schools and lay down curricula that would ensure or help the student’s learning process.
It does not change the fact that education involves both this system or aspect and an additional one that does not apply to schooling – informal education. While formal deals with and relates to aspects of schooling, informal is the direct opposite.
Informal and formal are two sides of the same coin (which is education), whereas schooling has just one side of the former coin. This analogy is enough to show that they are different in their respective ways.
4. Schooling lasts for a particular or stipulated period, while education lasts a lifetime: The school system is regulated because it continues to push or impart knowledge from available resources and materials.
The length of time this happens places much burden on the mind and body of the student. This is why breaks are taken periodically, or halts should be taken in the learning process to allow the body and mind to adapt to the process or what has been taught.
These breaks can be short or long. Short breaks can be the regular school lunchtime and the vacation period at the end of a term or semester. While the longer breakers could be when you are finally done with a particular stage, for instance, the undergraduate stage, and then you spend some time before you choose to proceed to the postgraduate stage or not.
Be that as it may, the point remains that breaks occur under schooling, while these breaks may not occur that way under education. In education, it is a whole different story.
A saying has it that “education ends in the grave.” This means that as long as one still has life in him/her, there will always be something to learn, either consciously or subconsciously.
5. Not all aspects of education require teachers, but all aspects of schooling require teachers: The role of teachers cannot be emphasized, as they help to guide the students and assist them in the learning process.
This importance drives their relevance in schooling, making it possible for every stage of learning here to have a teacher available. It does not matter that the students, on their own, can carry out some exercises and activities. The point remains that their role here is essential.
The same cannot be expressly stated for education, which though the formal education aspect may involve teachers, the informal part rarely, or in most cases, does not require teachers.
As the saying goes, “experience is the best teacher.” It entails that just as you would have to experience things, you do not need a teacher to show this to you; you are your teacher.
Schooling imparts knowledge and skill; education imparts more. People go to school to acquire knowledge and learn skills necessary to navigate through the murky waters of problems in the world.
The school system teaches you particular skills and knowledge which, upon successfully acquiring them, would lead you to the labor market, where you will try to use these skills and knowledge to help fix pertinent problems.
It is not the same with education, which allows you access to a plethora of knowledge and skills and a global technique that can be used to fix these issues.
The difference here is that not everything education offers is offered under schooling. Some things are not taught in classes, as they are the things you have to find out on your own because you have to experience them.
6. Schooling is confined to the four walls of the classroom; education is not: To be certified as a person who attended a school, you must pass through the available process. You have to pass through the classroom.
It begins with enrolling in an institution, starting from the minor class, grade, or level. Then you must attend school every day, pay attention and pass your test and examination to guarantee that you will keep climbing the ladder from one classroom to the other.
Under education, one does not need the classroom; one needs to be alive and watch the knowledge or skills coming their way. Frequently, people think that education and schooling are similar, but one needs the classroom, and the other needs plain existence.
7. Schooling is founded on formal education; education generally has no particular foundation: It is no secret that schooling and formal education have much in common and could be quickly passed as similar.
Be that as it may, schooling has its foundation rooted in formal education as its source. This is entirely true because education has no basis or origin, while an aspect of it (formal education) birthed schooling.
As we briefly stated earlier, the origin or foundation of education cannot be tracked. It is safe to assume that it may be as old as man himself. The various techniques, experimentation, experiences, and interactions have led to it being predominant enough that it not only birthed schooling but has continued to be a part of man that ultimately influences every aspect of his existence.
8. Schooling gives certificate; education offers a continuous, lifetime reward through lessons: When you go to school, the essential thing on your mind is the certification available for students who pass through the school or that level. Though knowledge is one of the significant reasons, it comes second to this.
Also, when people hear that you went through school, they tend to request your certificate, which is evidence that you went to school. It is a reward for your effort while you were undergoing the learning process. For education, it is different, as you are not offered any certificate or accolades; you are offered lessons.
These lessons will then guide you in ensuring that you make the right decisions as they pertain to you. Moreover, unlike schooling, where the certificate ends upon completing schooling, the lessons offered by education are continuous.
9. Schooling limits your scope of learning to a particular field; education allows you no limitations: The final difference between schooling and education is that schooling prepares a system that lets you focus on a particular field or area at a particular time. It allows you to go through courses or subjects one after the order.
When you get done with the level of doing various topics and need to focus on a particular line of work or career path, schooling ensures that you focus on that particular subject or courses ONLY that affect your career path.
Education, on the other hand, does not entertain limitations. It allows you to go beyond what you are used to or what is expected to include areas of interest. Just as life is broad and deep, education rides on that wing.
Conclusion
Having gone through the article on the difference between schooling and education, we hope you got the ideas you seek. Education has no limits, and you should always go for it any time, any day, as it makes you more knowledgeable
