Education & Training

Education, in its broadest sense, refers to the ways in which people learn skills and gain knowledge and understanding about the world, and about themselves. One useful scheme for discussing education is to divide these ways of learning into three types --- formal, informal and nonformal.
Formal education is instruction given in school. It is often called schooling. In most countries, people enter a system of formal education during their early childhood. In this type of education, the people in charge of a school decide what to teach, and learners then study those things under the direction of teachers. Learners are expected to come to school regularly and on time., to work at about the same speed as their classmates, and to pass tests to show how well they have progressed. At the end of the year, successful learners move up to the next level, that is, to the next standard, form or grade. In the end, they may earn a diploma, a certificate, or degree as a mark of their success over the years.
Informal education involves people learning while they go about their daily lives. For example, young children learn language simply by hearing others speak and by trying to speak themselves. In the same informal manner, they learn to dress themselves, eat with acceptable manner, ride a bicycle , make a telephone call, or operate a television set.
Education is also informal when people try to find out information or to gain skills on their own initiative without a teacher. To do so, they may visit a book shop, library, or museum. They may watch a television show, look at a videotape, or listen to radio programme , or go into net. They do now have to pass tests.
Nonformal education belongs somewhere between the formal and informal types. As in formal education, people using nonformal methods adopt planned and organized programmes. But nonformal education procedures are less tightly controlled than those of formal systems of schooling. For example, in countries whose