Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
By this research we are aiming at providing a thesis that breaks down the effects of one particular area, to the consequences that are transferred to another department directly or indirectly connected to it. We are looking at the cost of poor education; by poor education we mean poor quality of education, not being able to attain good grades, not being able to complete courses, not continuing to college and so on.
By all means poor education will be the cause of the community hardships that we witness each and every day of our lives. The crime in the streets; bad governance; poor economy; spread of HIV/AIDS, poor health, land non-productivity, domestic hardships, lower life expectancy, global warming, corruption and overpopulation. "The impact of poor education to the rich and to the poor almost measures equally only that the latter may have nothing to put on the table". (Woolfolk 2009: 78)
By observation and by analyzing data of some researchers, enough for this thesis has been put together. It doesn't matter who does what in society but the quality and the level at which they do it show a clear indication of what quality of education they fall in. Poor or not, education cannot always be a task of the student, poor education system is a blame to the government, its sponsors and the bordering states. The effects go far above the sky, so with the interpretation of sky being the limit, then lives are all ruined as a case of poor education.
Significance
The significance of the study is to draw a line between the problems that are seriously education related and those that happen by other means. No matter how much we suffer, if human error is involved, common sense plays a role. "Poor common sense is a side effect of poor education and the aim of the research is to identify the direct and the indirect consequences. The question interest here is, can we identify the consequences of a poor education?" (Divah 2000: 87)
CONSEQUENCES OF A POOR EDUCATION
Poor Economy
"The status of the economy relies mostly or entirely on education. Poor education and the system of education contribute equally to the economic sector. Outlining statistics on the effects of a poor education of the US we find that economy is most relying on education", (Bill 2009: 105). The following are the statistical facts of this case: "An adult failing to complete high school contributes $ 60,000 less over a lifetime to state and federal taxes; quality prekindergarten programming investment yields seven times every dollar invested by tax payers; public health savings would exceed $40billion if all the high school dropouts would attain their certificates; growth in worker productivity has improved from 11 to 20% with the increased educational attainment within a period of few decades". (World Bank 1990: 69)
Bad Governance
Leadership qualities are natural but good leadership doesn't rely on talents but on education. The congressmen and women need quality education to address the plight of the people they represent. Within the clause of bad governance, education of the voter matters in terms of whom they vote in. A poorly chosen candidate would be trouble in office when it comes to the addressing of the people's situations and needs. "A voter with no quality education will never be in a position to analyze the mandate and purpose of choosing well educated governor" (David 2009: 90). The result of the wrong choosing is bad governance in terms of state law and policies, health and education of the people he/she represents.
Corruption
"Whether on a public office or at private business dealings, poor education contributes to corruption in the following ways: poor qualifications are supplemented by financial tokens to achieve a certain position; poorly educated people earn less and therefore engage in other means of abuse to the office to gain more financial interest; poorly educated government personnel seek to solve cases by overlooking them at the production of a check to compensate the risk". (Mckinsey.com 2010)
Poor Health
Educating the community serves as one way of improving the health sector. Knowledge of what is healthy and what isn't is achieved by quality education. People lose their minds at the thought of fast foods, ice cream, chocolate and other calorie rich stuffs. If they had quality education they would be careful with their state of health, they would know what the consequences of bad dieting and sanitary were. "Quality education teaches all these and as a factor of poor education, health is affected immensely". (Sparrow 2006: 115)
Global Warming
How would education ever be associated by global warming? Good question from a poorly educated group. If all people had quality education, there would be policies managing the environment. Pollution and desertification would be taken care of; this in return would prevent the wearing out of the ozone layer. "Depletion of the ozone layer has been the cause of global warming thus leading to, flooding of coastal regions, deaths of mountain habitats, skin diseases and overstretched desert cover. Quality education to each individual would arrest the effect we are suffering now". (Sapolsky 2004: 124)
Spread of HIV/AIDS
Lack of quality education has led many out of their morals. People have come up with other means of getting finances. Prostitution and pornography do not require education, thus both uneducated men and women have resulted to choosing them as a way of getting their way through life. "Poor quality education and people opting for prostitution has all to do with the spread of HIV/AIDS despite the efforts of governments and charity organization to enlighten people on the matter". (World Bank 1990: 110)
Lower Life Expectancy and Overpopulation
Lower life expectancy has been as a result of lacking proper knowledge on healthy living. The fact that people do not know what is good for them in terms of health care, dieting and body fitness has reduced the life expectancy of people from possible 70 to 55 years. Lack of knowledge on family planning methods and estimation of how many children they can support has led to overpopulation. "Over population has been one cause of poor education to congested areas, the result being an increase in population. The two go hand in hand, poor education results to overpopulation and overpopulation results to poorer education". (Duncan 1999: 135)
CONCLUSION
So what does a poor education mean? It means the economy is at stake; health is deteriorating, spread of HIV/AIDS is getting worse, overpopulation and crime keep increasing each and every minute. To take a step in curbing these problems, we need to build policies that govern education system and encourage young people to take education as their future and that of the states they come from.