Education and Democracy

What is Education?

Education is the process of facilitating learning or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs and habits.
The process of giving or receiving systematic instructions about something is called education.
According to Albert Einstine: “Education is not the learning of facts but the training of mind to think”.
According to Aristotle: “the education is an ornament of prosperity and a refuge in adversity”.

Democracy:

The word democracy comes from the Greek words “demos”, meaning people, and “kratos” meaning power; so democracy can be thought of as “power of the people”: a way of governing which depends on the will of the people.
Democracy is a system of government in which laws, policies, leadership, and major undertakings of a state or other polity are directly or indirectly decided by the “people,”

Characteristics of a Democracy

1. Constitution

The constitution is a supreme law of the land that states the fundamental rights and key obligations of the government. Enshrined in the constitution includes the civil and political rights and limitations of state power on its citizens. The Constitution plays an important significant role and responsibility in helping the people through the process of deciding the needed, for good governance and require aspirations ensuring the common people’s needs and welfare of every citizen in the country are provided equally.

2. Popular Sovereignty

The government of every country in the world which falls through democratic characteristics must always obtain its power from the people. Done through a process that takes place every five to four years called elections, which gives them the ability to select, replace or reelect members of parliament and government officials entirely.

3. Majority Rule

Democracy follows the decision-making approach of majority rule in the way it’s processed. It focuses on individual human fundamental rights within the same state and country. This ensures that all critical levels of the liberal government operate within the borders of democracies and are accessible to the public, population, and people. The legislature is responsible for passing the laws by the majority.

4. Individual rights

The primary objective of democracies is to protect the human rights of every citizen. These include Freedom of speech Equality Freedom to choose their religion Freedom to participate in and organize cultural, economic, and political events in the society.

5. Free and fair Elections

Moreover, people of the right ages should be allowed to contest in the elections if they wish to do so. Democracies decide an age limit after which any citizen fulfilling specific criteria can participate in the election. All adult citizens have the right to vote for their government representatives. They should follow a well-accepted and trusted procedure. It is the process through which the citizens elect their leaders (representatives) for the next 4 to 5 years. The election process is free and fair and is held at regular intervals. In a democracy, provides for credible elections should be held at regular intervals.

6. Citizen Participation

People have the right to contest in elections, once of certain ages if they wish to do so. Democracies decide an age limit after which any citizen fulfilling specific criteria can participate in the election. A democracy gives equal political rights to every citizen of the nation. Everyone is free from discrimination whether male or female and not of black skin color.

7. Free independent media

Media in Democracy plays a key role in informing and educating citizens in many ways. It began years ago from the traditional Radio, Newspapers, Television, Books, Magazines, etc. It expands to new modern media like Satellite which covers current affairs and international Television, to the Internet and Social Media, the independence of media is one of the most significant characteristics of democracy

Education and Democracy