What is Education?
Education is a broad concept involving a process or an experience of acquiring information from our external environment. Knowledge and information may be acquired by formal or informal means.

Informal education simply refers to knowledge acquired through everyday experiences. A person starts learning as soon as he/she is born. During the early years, babies will learn themselves that certain actions may illicit a certain response. Like when babies cry, it is not only because they are uncomfortable or hungry. Sometimes they do it deliberately because they have gained enough information through experience that when they do cry, their mothers will most likely come to them and rock them to sleep. It may be just a very basic thing for the child’s learning, but situations like this will startup the whole process of acquiring knowledge from the environment.

Formal education meanwhile refers to what we know as knowledge acquisition through formal teaching from schools. Some schools offer formal education programs as early as the toddler years. Many have programs starting at age of 4 or 5. These programs pertain to the preschool years. And from then on, kids will move on to higher levels and eventually go to college or university. Most formal school programs are standardized forms of education or learning. Meaning, subjects and tasks are predetermined for each level according to what is considered appropriate at that particular level. In some countries, educational programs are subsidized to ensure that citizens will become literate and will have more job opportunities in the future.

Education acquired formally does not always guarantee success in life. Though much of the job industry requires formal education, there are also many people who gain success even without formal training. For some people, as long you as you know basic reading, writing and arithmetic early on in life, you can forego higher levels of education. For these people, experience is the best teacher rather than formal schooling.