On October 28, 1955, Bill Gates was given birth to and later attended congregational christian churches with his family to acquire religious education. In 1968, he was enrolled in the Lakeside School to begin his formal education which he later accompanied with non formal education in Computers. In 1973, he graduated from Lakeside School. The same year, he enrolled at Harvard College to complete the circle of education. 14 years after, Bill Gates got enlisted in the Forbes' list of the World's wealthiest people. As we speak, he tops the list according to the same Forbes' list, 2017 version. It then dawned on me that if not for Education in the life of Bill Gates, God knows, he may have been topping the list of the poorest people in his town. In short, Education paid the Bill and opened the Gates to Bill Gates' wealth. Hence, I have come to write on the topic - Education, a license to wealth.
Ladies and Gentlemen, permit me to explain who an educated man is. According to the programme for the International assessment of Adult competences, Education is any act or experience that has a formative effect on an individual's mind, character or ability. Hosea Ballou further said, Education commences at the mother's knee and every word that tend towards the formation of character is Education. These only show that education cannot be strictly scoped to schooling. That is education could be informal as in home training, non-formal as in entrepreneurship and formal as in schooling. Judges, Ladies and Gentlemen, These forms of education form to formulate a fully educated man.
Now, what is wealth? As defined by Merriam Webster Dictionary, wealth is the abundance of valuable material possessions or resources. Ladies and Gentlemen, my opponents will be locking themselves in a cage if they restrict wealth to money or materials, but I will like to help them out of the cage by letting them know that Wealth extends to resources such as intellect, skills, strength, ability, character, etc. A Swahili quote even said ""Wisdom is wealth". It is apparent that going through any of these forms of education, one will definitely acquire one or more of these aspects of wealth. So, education is not just a license to wealth, but in fact, the engine.
On a new tone, Education not only improves our head but also our health. According to a survey carried out by Associated Press and reported by New York Times in 2010, for every extra year of education women had, the death rate for children under 5 dropped by almost 10 percent. This shows that aside education being a license to wealth, it could be a ticket to life. The study also found that educated women tend to use health services more often and make better choices on hygiene, nutrition, and parenting. We all believe that health is wealth just like we know that if A is equal to B and B is equal to C, then A is also equal to C. Likewise, since Education improves health, it is only logical to say that Education is not just a license to wealth but in fact, the fuel.
Also, increased education levels directly give individuals the necessary skills to increase their income, quality of life and standard of living. Each extra year of schooling a child receives increases his/her future earnings by 10 percent according to UNESCO. Farmers too are not left out as education gives them intellectual wealths and skills to harness material wealth and this will raise their cultivation levels. Now, just like us, the worms in our belly will also become wealthy. Hence, Education is not just a license to wealth but indeed the steering.
Furthermore, according to Worldatlas.com, in its article published on January 20, 2016, South Sudan, Niger, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Mozambique are part of the top 10 countries with poor education in the world. Incidentally, these same 5 countries were listed as part of the 15 poorest countries in the world according to International Monetary Fund's World Economic Outlook Database in October, same year. As reported by the same source, Canada, Japan, US, South Korea and UK are part of the 10 most educated countries in the world and they were simultaneously ranked among the 15 richest countries in the world. This shows that there is a direct link between the content of the citizens' head and the content of a nation's pocket such that, the lesser education contributes to their head the lower their hands contribute to the nation's pocket. Therefore, education is not just a license to wealth but indeed, the wheel.
Some people may want to say that there are many educated people who are not rich, yes that is true, but they must be told that there is a clear difference between being rich and being wealthy. Ladies and Gentlemen, being wealthy goes beyond what you have in your hand to what you have under your hat and in your heart.
Ladies and Gentleman, without Education, the car of wealth cannot burge, in other words, wealth is possible but not without Education. Thank you.
