Education aims to bring about positive changes in our behaviour. It helps us try to change our lives as well as the society we live in. Education that does not illuminate our minds or does not inspire us to work for the community is not complete at all. Education is not all about getting grades or receiving certificates; we use education to make life better. We are expected to apply the knowledge, skills and values that we learn in a classroom in our engagement with the world that lies outside. And we can do so in many different ways. Let's have a look at how education works.
Learners' civic engagement is highly appreciated all over the world. Civic engagement means working to make a difference in the civic life (the public life of the citizens as contrasted with private or personal life) of the community using knowledge, skills, values and motivation. Civic engagement promotes the quality of life in a community by contributing to the improvement of health and well-being of the people.
Civically engaged individuals recognise themselves as members of a larger social community and are concerned about civic issues. They consider themselves responsible citizens who take action or raise their voices against injustice, discrimination and other forms of social ills.
In civic engagement, issues of public concern are crucial. Civic engagement includes individual or group activities to protect public interests and change the way the community values itself. For example, if you are protesting against any unjust decision of the local municipality such as raising taxes or an act that might work against people's interests, you are civically engaged and your action is considered a civic engagement. This protest can be done in different ways such as organising rallies, collecting signatures, making human chains, writing petitions, etc. You can also help control traffic in front of a school, help children to cross the roads, work in a team to clean a park or a seabeach. You can also give some services to elderly people. These are all examples of civic engagement as what you do directly affects the community.
When civic engagement is a part of an academic programme, and the learners' engagement is assessed following a scale, then it is called service learning. It involves the application of knowledge and skills learned in the classroom and then making a complete plan of action i.e. preparing a budget, starting the process of implementation, involving people and activating operational strategies. When civic engagement is spontaneous but irregular and not a part of any academic programme, it is considered volunteerism.
Choose the best answer from alternatives.
(a) People concerned involve themselves in ______
(i) social ills (ii) social reformation (iii) civil society (iv) public nuisance
(b) 'Illuminate' does not mean ______
(i) enlighten (ii) brighten (iii) kindle (iv) obscure
(c) The opening sentence of the passage directly states the aim to ______
(i) explain the importance of education (ii) explain the importance of true education (iii) highlight the aim of education (iv) highlight our duties to the society we live in
(d) The word 'volunteerism' in the last paragraph means ______
(i) the practice of doing work for personal causes (ii) the practice of doing work for remuneration (iii) the practice of doing work for good causes (iv) the practice of doing work for bad causes
(e) Civic engagement promotes ______
(i) the comfort of life (ii) the worries of life (iii) the standard of life (iv) the purity of life
(a) (ii) social reformation
(b) (iv) obscure
(c) (iii) highlight the aim of education
(d) (iii) the practice of doing work for good causes
(e) (iii) the standard of life