Ignorance: A Global Problem of Mankind

Ignorance has always been a major problem in the world; dating back to the BC era, peasants would follow their rulers unquestioningly. In the modern day, civilizations have progressed towards the idea of complete equality; however, ignorance and lack of education are still prevalent in today’s society. Those who are not educated or do not stay informed don’t have individual opinions, are less independent, and are more likely to make an uninformed decision about people, politics, or the world around them.

Two major aspects of this injustice are corruption and poverty; as we seek to rid the world of ignorance, we must first ask ourselves which of these points to begin reform with. An article taken from the October 5th issue of the Philippines Daily Inquirer discusses this exact topic. The article is written about a friend of the author who worked in government and was “shocked at how corruption chokes both the morality of governance and its efficient delivery of basic services” (Montelibano 1).

The author goes on to say how while this may be true, it is more important to focus on ending poverty and this will make anti-corruption much easier to accomplish. The author backs his argument by saying that “it is crucial to remember that corruption thrives where the populace is mostly weak and poor, simply because corruption, first and foremost, is exploitative in nature. The weak and the poor are easy to exploit, while an empowered population, empowered by economic and political freedom, will be much more difficult to manipulate for gain ” (Montelibano 7). This quote is very profound and gives an excellent explanation of the author’s solution to government corruption: to begin by aiding poverty until a country’s people are at a good enough financial point to make informed decisions not driven by necessity of electing those who promise to improve poverty and corruption, but truly will not.

This point is backed up when Montelibano says in paragraph 8 that candidates “would focus on anti-corruption slogans, which means they knew that voters wanted to hear these promises, as the voters, mostly poor, were led to believe that corruption is the primary cause of their poverty.” This aids the explanation made about the first quote, and helps to give understanding to the impulsive voting habits of ignorant people in poverty. From this article, we can see the effects of poverty and corruption on a person’s ability to make an informed decision, simply because people in poverty are not as concerned with higher level thinking as they are with obtaining their physiological needs.

Lack of education is perhaps the paramount cause of ignorance. Those who do not have access to education are prone to ignorance. Specifically in developing countries, “problems such as poverty, war, lack of teachers, and unsafe facilities have kept millions of children from gaining the primary educations so crucial to success in the modern world” (Developing Countries and Education 1). This quote shows how many children in developing countries are unable to succeed due to problems preventing them from learning.

The United Nations has been working to improve worldwide education, but they have not yet succeeded in bringing education to everyone. Some children have the opportunity to go to school, but are unable to because they need to work instead to help support their families. Sub-Saharan Africa is devastatingly affected by this, for example, “in Zambia, nearly one out of every four children under the age of 14 works for wages, while some children in West Africa … are transported away from their homes to serve as laborers to farms and factories” (Developing Countries and Education 4). Some may say that since child labor has declined by 30 percent in the past few years, it is not the most important global crisis. I would argue that while child labor has declined recently, there are still 146 million children worldwide under the age of 14 that work, and that child labor in sub-Saharan Africa has barely been affected by this decrease, as it was mostly in other parts of the world. In addition, “the HIV/AIDS crisis in sub-Saharan Africa contributes both to the high child labor rate and lack of access to education; orphaned children with no family to care for them turn to wage labor for basic survival, and many are unable to attend even the most basic schooling” (Developing Countries and Education 4). From this article, we see how crises common to developing countries can affect a person’s ability to receive basic education, as people are more focused on providing for basic needs.

Single-sex education also plays a significant role as well. Single-sex education can cause people to be incognizant; unequal opportunities or separation based on gender can lead to differences in learning and perspective on important matters. As seen in Great Britain in the twentieth century, “curriculum often differed dramatically between the genders. For example, vocational courses for boys tended to focus on woodworking or metalworking, while courses for girls focused on sewing, cooking, or other domestic skills” (Single-Sex Education 3). This shows how even in leading global nations, gender-based separation can lead to discrepancies in learning. This can lead to less individuality as people are consigned to predetermined careers when they are still children, without considering the desires of the individual.

Some may disagree, saying that some developed nations, such as Australia and New Zealand, have thrived while still having primarily single-single education. In digression this is true, but these countries are exceptions to the majority of single-sex nations. A major study released by the APA (American Psychological Association) found that single-sex schools “do not correlate with higher educational achievement or motivation for girls or boys. The [research] analyzed 184 prior studies, published between 1968 and 2013, involving more than 1.6 million K-12 students from twenty-one countries. To conclude, separation of schools by gender has a strong association with decreased individuality and uniqueness.

To conclude, because it can lead to corruption, lack of individual thought, and uneducated decisions, ignorance is an important injustice topic in the modern world. Other important global issues such as poverty, HIV/AIDS, and child labor contribute to ignorance in the world. As we help bring others out of poverty and as we learn to not be influenced by the opinions of others, we can overcome the enduring pitfall of ignorance in the pathway of human development.