LEARNING: ENTITLEMENT OR PRIVILEGE?

It is enlightening to see how those who get a chance to study, at the expense of others, respond to that privilege.  This is especially true for adult learners who are sent by their employers to study for a degree through an extra-curricular program. 

One finds two groups of adult learners.  Each group has a different attitude to the opportunity that so many other South Africans wish they could have. 

The more mature group (in mind and not in age) take the chance that their employers give them, with both hands.  They explore the new ideas.  They debate the points for clarity.  They make those new ideas their own, and they inspire their lecturers to give their best to those eager minds. 

These are the leaders in the companies that they come from.  They may not sit in the highest seats in their organisations, but they prove through their attitude that they have great potential.  They are real, hidden assets for this country that needs educated leaders who can inspire others by their attitudes and by their thirst for knowledge. 

Of course, there has to be the other side, too.  Those who think that they do not have to do anything in return for the free bursary that their employers give them.  The moment that they set foot on academic grounds, (wherever it is), they undergo a metamorphosis. 

This group refuses to take notes.  They are tardy.  Being an hour or more late for class seem to be the norm rather than the exception.  They storm out of classes and slam doors behind them when a lecturer dares to reprimand them for their behaviour.  They refuse to participate in discussions, and their deliver assignments that portray a highly unprofessional image of them and the company that they represent.  In short, they are actually an embarrassment to themselves and to the companies who spent thousands to give them an opportunity to earn a degree.  Last, they fail their courses and blame everyone else but himself or herself for that failure. 

The interesting thing is that one would expect this sort of negative behaviour from an eighteen year-old.  Certainly, a twenty-five year-old or thirty year-old should know better to show such puerile behaviour. 

South Africa cannot afford to waste education on those who get it free from their employers, and who refuse to appreciate the value of the gift to the future that their employers so richly bestow on them. 

What is wrong with such a picture? 

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