Do Canadians perceive the purpose of post-secondary schooling to be credentialism or education?

Essay by jayanithaHigh School, 12th gradeA+, May 2006

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Post-secondary schooling touches the lives of all Canadians, and informs and enriches the lives of most. Post-secondary education gives the learner the opportunity to acquire relevant and diverse competencies and skills, for example, academic mastery, technical capability, creativity, innovation, communication, cultural understanding, and sensitivity. But many people including Canadians take the post-secondary schooling for granted. They don't actually take it as a good learning experience instead they perceive the purpose of post-secondary schooling to be credentialism. I think post-secondary education is generally a good thing for a variety of reasons not limited to its impact on your career prospects but it shouldn't be the case that a degree is a requirement for jobs that frankly don't really require it. And, even more so we should kill the idea that everyone needs a post-secondary diploma. Everyone doesn't need one especially to the extent that it's really the diploma people care about and not the actual learning part.

According to Robert Birgeneau, in 1960s, most students waved goodbye to languages, literatures, and social sciences. They only focused on one study. For example, if they were bright, they quickly got shunted onto the science track only. I believe this is the case even now in Canada. We have all kinds of courses available in Canadian post-secondary schooling now. However, only a few people get such an education, many English or History majors in colleges/universities get precious little education and much more training to become teachers, and those students in fields like the sciences and business often receive only a cursory glimpse into the world of humanities, sociology, literatures, and social sciences in their sophomore years.

I agree that there is a serious issue relating to credentialism nowadays. However, this relates not simply to some general notion that one...