North South University

Public Health
Department

‘Health is first or Education

first’ – Justification
Assignment # 01
PBH101, Section:12

Prepared for
Dr. Shaikh Abdus Salam

Prepared by

Quazi Zoheb Sanjid

ID# 053434030
From my point of view, health is
first, not education. In the rest of my
paper, I will try to justify my answer. Here, first of
all, I’ll discuss what is health and what is education
as well as their importance, then I will show my points, why health is first.

Health is the general condition of a person in all aspects... It is also a level of functional
and/or metabolic efficiency of an organism, often implicitly human. At the time of the
creation of the World Health Organization (WHO), in 1948, health was defined as "a
state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of
disease or infirmity". In 1986, the WHO, in the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion,
said that health is "a resource for everyday life, not the objective of living. Health is a
positive concept emphasizing social and personal resources, as well as physical
capacities." Classification systems such as the WHO Family of International
Classifications (WHO-FIC), which is composed of the International Classification of
Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) and the International Classification of Diseases
(ICD) also define health. Overall health is achieved through a combination of physical,
mental, and social well-being, which, together is commonly referred to as the Health
Triangle. A lot of people in this world are seeking wealth. They spent hours working
everyday, commit themselves to their work, aiming for promotions and pay-rise from
their work. The entrepreneurs and business people, too have the common objective of
earning more money, always thinking of how to earn more money. No doubt money is
important, your health is even more important. Everyday, your ability to go to work -
waking up early in the morning and able to have the drive to work, is all due to your good
health. Without a healthy body, you do not even have any earning potential! When your
health is at risk, you are in pain, do you think you can earn money then? Do you think
you can go to work with the drive and energy as when you are in normal health? Do you
think you can bear the pain - save money and do not need to see doctor? Our health is our
'everything'. Whether you are a toddler, a child, a teenage or an adult, a good health
enable you to perform the daily functions of life. For students, a normal health, allow
them to able to go to school, to obtain knowledge and the building of character. For
adults, good health means you can go to work everyday, to earn a living, to be able to
achieve your goals in life. Good health also enable you to enjoy life.
The greatest asset of life is our ability to be able to wake up everyday and go to work. I
am sure you have experienced time when you are not able to wake up in certain time of
the morning. You are sick. Your bodies are aching. You have headaches and to make it
worse, you feel nauseous and you may be having diarrhea too. When time like that
strikes, you have to call up the office to report sick. You applied for medical leave. As a
salary worker or staff, under such circumstances you are paid at the end of the month
your monthly salary. Every year, you have certain number of days to apply for your
sickness. However, some people like the self-employed individuals such as the taxi-
drivers and some property agents or sales people are paid based on commission alone. If
they don't work, they have no earnings for that day. These people know truly well that
they cannot afford to be sick. A day without work means a day without paid for them!
When you are sick, you need to see doctor. Nobody can bear the pains of sickness and
diseases. When you are sick, you are suffering. You cannot function well and most of the
time you just want to sleep or lie down to rest. You do not have the energy to even move
around. So it makes work really impossible.
Apart from physical health, mental health is also important. Some people do not have
diseases or viral illness or sickness at all. But their mental health got problems. Some
people have mild mental health problems, while some others have more serious mental
health problems. Those people who suffer serious mental illness have to be hospitalized.
While some people are hospitalized for treatments or for other reasons such as abandoned
by families, others are being looked after by their own family members at home. For such
 cases of serious mental illness, no one would want to employ them. Neither can they look
after themselves. They have lost their earning potential. They cannot contribute anything
to the society. They have to rely on care-givers to provide for their daily needs and care.
Healthy people look good. The more healthy you are the more attractive you become.
When your skin tone is right, your hair neatly groomed your physique in proportion and
your body fat is low, people will naturally find you more attractive. Attractiveness is just
behind personality in the importance of appealing to members of the opposite sex. Why
do people find someone attractive? The reasons lie deep in our psychological and
biological make up. Why we find someone attractive is based upon our biological urges
to reproduce and our psychological urges to feel special. In general an attractive woman
or man is someone who appears to be physically fit (biological) and of interest to many
people (psychological).

Education in the largest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the
mind, character or physical ability of an individual. In its technical sense, education is the
process by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills and
values from one generation to another.
Teachers in educational institutions direct the education of students and might draw on
many subjects, including reading, writing, mathematics, science and history. This process
is sometimes called schooling when referring to the education of teaching only a certain
subject, usually as professors at institutions of higher learning. There is also education in
fields for those who want specific vocational skills, such as those required to be a pilot. In
addition there is an array of education possible at the informal level, such as in museums
and libraries, with the Internet and in life experience. Many non-traditional education
options are now available and continue to evolve.
In this Twenty-First Century, the value of education has taken on a whole new meaning.
Education is an important tool that contributes to several aspects of a person’s life in order
to take advantage of what have been learned and how to productively it
in either personal or professional life. Being educated is something that
always being looked at as a positive achievement that feels good and
looks good on a resume. A paper education can almost assure someone
of making more money in their lifetime. So no matter what, education is
the key that allows people to move up in the world, seek better jobs, and
ultimately succeed fully in life. Two types of education that basically
exposed to the world are formal education and informal education,
which are seems to be familiar to us. Formal education is classroom-
based, provided by trained teachers. Informal education happens outside
the classroom, in after-school programs, community-based
organizations, museums, libraries, or at home. Both formal and informal
education settings offer different strengths to the educational outreach project. Formal
education needs to meet the educational standards and stick to a specified curriculum.
Informal education, on the other hand, can be more flexible with their content. However,
both formal and informal educations are essential to everyone.

The major role of education is to create an educated society. In the culture today, there is
a huge emphasis on education, especially higher education. Society usually says the more
educated, the better of a person will be. That is pretty much true if a person live by the
means of society. The basic idea that education, especially a college education, is
something that people should pursue even into their adult years is not any means a new
idea. Every society has specialized individuals who fulfill certain positions that require
extended education. In some cases, these people are known as shamans, priests, or
professors or they may be doctors, mechanics, blacksmiths or artist. In all these
professions, some form of higher education is necessary. It could come from an
apprentice or rigorous private study, or it could take the form of a formal higher
education.

Higher education is increasingly seen as essential for economic mobility, and the focus is
not just the credential but on the personal growth, skills and perspective. Education is
essential for economic development and eradicating poverty. It allows people to be more
productive, to play a greater role in economic life, and to earn a better living. Population
that develops with higher education plays an important role as it known as an economic
development policy goal. Educated workers make a net positive contribution to
government budgets, and they help to raise the wages of all workers in an area. As the oil
crisis, rising crime, lower moral standards, breakdown of traditional moral codes and
racial conflict in the cities, it brings up more concerns about the morality of human
beings. The presence of poverty, disease and conflict, which often reflects the violation of
human rights, provides a strong argument for suggesting that young people should be
empowered to create fairer, more just world. Young people need to be helped to
understand the causes of poverty, disease and conflict and the role of human beings in
causing such problems as well as findings ways of eliminating them. If everyone accept
the principle that all human beings have rights and claim these rights, the responsibility to
act in accordance with this principle and seek to secure the rights of others might build up
more conscious in the society.

As a student developed more knowledge, he seems to become more matured. As a

matured person has other advantage over younger, less mature people. Older people are
generally smarter than younger people are. They are smarter in the sense of knowledge
arrived at through experience. People know the truth of learning by experience. All of the
best people in sport, in working industry, in commerce have reached that level by
learning through experience and undeniable higher educations. Matured person are
willing to take advice from acknowledged experts and that new knowledge into practice.
Besides that, they would learn through mistakes and amend it in the future.
In classrooms from kindergarten to high school, students are taught the trials and
tribulations of people, governments and countries from the past. However, the importance
of religion is almost not associated with such topics. Until today, tomorrow and the next,
a vast majority of governmental bodies are based on religious beliefs. Religious study
would give a better understanding of different cultures. Students are openly exploring the
other cultures of the world. They came to know that their beliefs are not the only culture.
Other cultures have valuable insights to share, enriching themselves. Hence, people also
learn that different races have different ways of thinking and doing things, and came to
realize that anything foreign can be an enlightenment of minds and spirit. Education also
makes a person want to travel and interact with various cultures. When a person
understands about other people and their cultural, the tolerance level is much higher for
things that appear strangely. On the other hand, a good education translates to excellent
networking. When a person is skillful and knowledgeable, he gets to communicate with
people of similar backgrounds and tastes. By building a network of contacts in the field
of a person interest or industry, he can enlarge his spheres of influence and hence the
circle of people that he can rely on in time of need.

Note: Data are 2007 annual averages for persons age 25 and over. Earnings are for full-
time wage and salary workers.

A good education lays the foundation for a person’s life in this post industrial age. When
it comes to the quality of life, it gives a huge impact to who are educated. When there’s a
downturn in the economy, those who lose their jobs owing to a downsizing will most
likely to be the ones who find other job sooner, compared to someone who only finished
grade school and has a limited skill set. Education is a basic requirement for so many
employers. The more education a person has, the more chances of him to get for
improving his lot in life. If a person have a better job, earn a higher salary, and if he gets
a financially prudent, he gets to acquire the material comforts and more that not everyone
can have. On the other hand, the more options an individual has, the less likely will be to
become a social burden though crime or inactivity. A good education translates to
excellent networking. When a person is skillful and knowledgeable, he gets to
communicate with people of similar backgrounds and tastes. By building a network of
contacts in the field of a person interest or industry, he can enlarge his spheres of
influence and hence the circle of people that he can rely on in time of need.

Education provides people with tools and knowledge they need to understand and
participate in today’s world. It helps to sustain the human values that contribute to
individual and collective well-being. It is the basic for lifelong learning. It inspires
confidence and provides the skills needed to participate in public debate. It makes people
more self-reliant and aware of opportunities and rights. Education enhances the ability of
households to manage health problems, improve nutrition and childcare, and plan for the
future. Besides that, basic education provides especially for girls and women with a
greater understanding of basic health, nutrition and family planning, as well as of their
own potential and women rights. Educated women that after getting marry have fewer
children but they will receive better prenatal care. Mothers who have been to school are
healthier, better nourished and more likely to attend and succeed in school then children
of mothers who have never gone to school before.

Though, the importance or necessitate whatever we say of education is

immense, but can we get education without health? Is it possible for a
man/woman who is a patient of say paralysis or mental disorder, can attend
the classes in a college or university? If he can’t then how can he get the
light of education? For being educated, we first need our health. When
human came in earth, there was no education, people survived because they
had health & after many years they got their education system, but how
would they survive if they had no health?

When you do not take care of your health, it may means spending more money than what
you are earning now. We know that medical expenses are getting more expensive. We
cannot afford to fall sick. Once illness strikes, you need to see doctor, get treatment, and
seek remedies to soothe and to reduce your sufferings. Most of the time, diseases are
chronic and life-long. Treatment may be monthly, like kidney dialysis, and these are
liabilities to you. When such time come, you don't even feel good. You are limited to the
number of things that you can do. You are limited to the food that you can eat too. Life
would not be as enjoyable and free when you have a normal health!

For people with mild cases of mental problems, is important to seek help while it's early
to prevent the illness from progressing further. That applies to physical health too. Our
health would signal us that there is problem when you develop signs and symptoms
which affect you in your daily functions of life. When these 'alarm' strikes, you should
pay attention to it. It is giving you a warning and you'd better do something to it. If you
don't, whatever dreams or hopes that you have for the future will be at risk anytime.

All in all, I would say that our health is our greatest asset that we have. Health is
important to us as it enables you to fulfill your dreams and goals in life. In pursuing your
life's goals and dreams, you seek meaning in life. Many times, our goals in life might be
to achieve materials things, which require money. When your health does not permit you
to work anymore, you lost the earning potential and to make it worse, you became a
liability to your family and to the society too. As for minority of people who find great
satisfaction of life through helping people by one means or another, this require a good
health to serve people too. When such time arises, when you have poor health - when
illness strikes, it became an obstacles and hindrance to your dreams come true. It
becomes a suffering in your life.