Oftentimes people have misconstrued illiteracy as the opposite of being educated. According to this school of thought, everybody who is literate is automatically educated. A more ridiculous postulation is that "only those who have graduated from tertiary institutions are regarded as literate and educated"----these assumptions are not correct.

Little wonder our students would rather be involved in any act of malpractice to get a degree (perhaps a good one) than subject themselves to the rigorous process that would get them properly educated.

The result of the foregoing is that we now have multitude of uneducated and truly unemployable graduates in our society. Painfully, these graduates don't even know how uneducated they are---perhaps because they are in possession of a certificate they can hardly defend. Take that certificate away from some graduates, and you would be shocked to realize how empty, unaware (uneducated) they are about nearly everything including their basic rights as citizens.

Education is manifested in the way you conduct yourself, the manner you respond to situations, the way you talk, etc.

So, Can a person be literate but uneducated?

The answer is an emphatic YES because literacy mainly has to do with the legibility of your writings and eloquence in speech, which doesn't automatically translate to being educated. For example, most six-year-olds can read and write---yet still relatively uneducated.

It may be safe to assume that every educated person is supposedly literate but the opposite is not always true, because surprisingly some illiterates are far more informed. Yes! "educated illiterates" and they are better and more useful than uneducated graduates.

In trying to understand how a graduate can still be uneducated, a visit to any of our classrooms will reveal that we have two categories of students;
(1). Those who are merely listening but not learning (listening and learning are two different things please).
(2). Those we are learning (listening with an unquenchable quest and a voracious heart for more knowledge).

The first category of students usually don't have any question (s) to ask, yet they don't understand. This attitude stays with them and keeps them perpetually ignorant. I once heard the head of a sports ministry say and I quote "athletes don't necessarily need to train before they can win medals". This is nothing but a perfect example of lack of education.

It's bad enough to have uneducated graduates but what is even most disheartening, is having graduates who can neither write, speak well nor read and understand properly. And yes! we have these people even in leadership positions.


Education is about the overall development of a person making him/her a complete human being who not only read or 
write but also has the ability to;
(1) Understand that education is an unending exercise.
(2). Think functionally and reason logically in broader terms and analyse the things rationally.
(3). Conduct his/herself wisely.
(4). Understand and distinguish between right and wrong.
(5) Know his/her rights and what to do when such rights are violated.

Source: Histemple