Age is not a barrier to learning

Before supporting or opposing any of the views on whether or not age is a barrier to learning, I want us to critically consider and deliberately examine the meaning of the three substantive words that make up the sentence: Age, Barrier, and Learning.

The first of the words is Age. Age has to do with the period, the season, maturing, getting old or getting old. As a man, we must not forget that aging or maturing carries many responsibilities.

Now let’s consider the barrier. Barrier is synonymous with fence, blockage, obstruction, obstacle, fence and difficulty. Note that out of all these synonyms, there is no word that can permanently stop a certain mind. With determination, the winners see them as challenges and not as the end of a road. I belong to the category of people who see those words as challenges but not as an end. In fact, the only final ending that I recognized is death. And any body that stops bowing, dead or alive, is death as far as I’m concerned.

On the other hand, learning means education or acquisition of knowledge. If you agree with me that leaning is synonymous with education and can sometimes be used interchangeably without penalties, support could also be classified into three types, such as education: formal education, (formal learning), non-formal education (non-formal learning) and informal. education (informal learning).

Now that these words have been considered and clearly clarified, one can comfortably hold an opinion as to whether or not age is a barrier to education, however, I will be indifferent to support or oppose in a hurry because, as a pragmatist, I believe in saying things that he as they are, but not how they look. Considering a formal learning system that is an organized form of learning within the four walls of an institution, age could be a barrier. For example, you are a highly determined person who can enroll in a formal educational system at the age of forty. A person in their forties already has many responsibilities that could constitute a barrier to relying on a formal system at that age. At this age, some of the barriers could be marriage, children, financing, and work.

According to the policy position paper of Age Concern Northern Ireland, older people should have equal opportunities to continue their education, develop new skills and talents. That means there are some opportunities that older people are supposed to be exposed to or share with younger people, but are denied due to their age. That said, it is not enough to admit that age is a barrier to learning, because formal learning is only one aspect of learning.

Since learning included formal, non-formal and informal learning, learning could be seen as part of life, a fact that takes place from cradle to grave. It means that one begins to learn as soon as possible until death.

Considering that learning is from the cradle to death, we have to take some illustration to prove it. A child learns to cry, drink water and even suckle from the very day he is born. The child continues to learn this way until the formal learning age when the child will be enrolled in a formal school system.

Age is not a barrier to learning because some people who dropped out of school for one reason or another often enroll for public exams like the General Certificate of Education (GCE) even in their forties and still go back to school to continue their studies. studies. If age is a barrier to learning, those who dropped out of school before 1970 in Nigeria would not have known how to use computers, because computers were not taught in Nigerian schools before 1970.

Also, some people learn and acquire a skill or two even in their late fifties. It could be a game or any other enjoyable skill.

Additionally, Professor Pat Utomi said in one of his media interviews with AIT that a teacher who did not attend up to two seminars per year is not qualified to stand up and lecture in any classroom because what he will give to students will be stagnant. , obsolete and poisonous to the nation. According to him, all lecturers, whether a professor or not, should be sponsored to attend two or more seminars each year, either by the government or their employer. This connotes that even as a teacher who might have been forty or older, you are still mandated to learn by the law of dynamism.

Who? Whether it is infant or adult, young or old who has not learned a thing or two today. A man dies from the moment he stops to learn. In the office we learn, in religious houses we learn, in the markets we learn and even at home we learn. Travel and tourism are also part of learning. How can age be a barrier to inclination when learning never stops until man dies?

In conclusion, you can agree with me after going through the points on age and learning so far elucidated that no matter age you may try to be a barrier to the formal learning system, it is not enough to say that age is a barrier to learning. The only thing that is permanent in life is change, and it is only learning that sustained change in that state.