Formal and Informal education

FORMAL EDUCATION

• ‘Formal education refers to the systematic and sequential acquiring of knowledge and skills – usually at a school, university, or college.’

• It provides individuals with a sense of direction through well established channels, allowing them to achieve their intended objectives.

• Educational institutions are tasked with identifying children's hidden abilities, potentials, interests, behavior, and needs and bringing them to the best available platform.

CHARACTERISTICS

▪ Formal education is structured hierarchically.

▪ It is planned and deliberate unlike informal education.

▪ It has a chronological grading system.

▪ Formal Education is subject and syllabus oriented which is well structured and

systematic.

▪ Students are taught by trained professionals and teachers.

▪ Syllabus has to be covered in a set time duration.

▪ Attendance oriented programs.

▪ Involves scheduled fees.

EXAMPLES

Formal Education at Its Various Levels :

• Preschool : Early childhood education is the process of teaching fundamental skills to children aged three to six.
• The Elementary Level : The first few years of a child's educational career are spent in the primary school setting. Reading, mathematics, and other fundamentals of education are taught to students as they progress through this phase of their education. It is also referred to as primary school or grade school.
• Middle and High School : High school is another name for secondary school or secondary education. After completion of compulsory education, students have the option of continuing their education at either the lower or upper secondary level.
• Instruction After High School : The term "post-secondary education" refers to any and all formal education that is voluntary.
• These include programmes at the undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as those at
• professional schools, community colleges, law schools, and medical schools.

INFORMAL EDUCATION

• Informal education is a general term for education that can occur outside of a structured curriculum.
• A person can attain informal education from all aspects of his life. A person can learn from his family, friends, neighbors, from the market place, from his workplace, from his playground, libraries, art exhibitions, social media mainstream media like movies and magazines, pop culture and many many more sources.
• Informal education is indeed a lifelong learning process with no certification or any set way of validation.

CHARACTERISTICS

• Informal education isn’t limited by any boundary walls.

• It does not have any set curriculum or syllabus.

• It is not pre-planned.

• It does not have a set time-table.

• It is a natural process of learning which is lifelong.

• This mode of education requires no fees since it is mostly attained from daily

experiences and everyday environment.

• It has no certification or any form of validation which is why there are no degrees for

this mode of education.

• Learning through this process can even be unintentional

EXAMPLE

• Your mother tongue is a good example of informal learning because you do not need to attend a formal educational institution in order to acquire ‘how to speak’ this language. You are able to learn language through observation and immersion in your environment.
• You can learn about fire and physics in formal schooling, and in more advanced classes, you can even learn about thermodynamics. Informal education, on the other hand, is when you witness someone getting a burn on their hand because they touched the handle of a pot without using a potholder.
• Mentoring.
• Watching videos.
• Self-Study.
• Team Building Activities.
• Games and Simulations.
• Pod casts.

ADVANTAGES

INFORMAL EDUCATION

• Natural and daily way of learning.

• Individualized learning.

• Utilization of a lot of techniques.

• Not costly.

• Increases a sense of belonging.

• Can be mutually beneficial to the

learner and teacher.

• No age limit.

• Time efficient.

• Bridges gap between theory and

practical.

• Encourages self -exploration.

FORMAL EDUCATION

▪ An organized educational model and

up to date course contents.

▪ Students acquire knowledge from

trained and professional teachers.

▪ Structured and systematic learning

process.

▪ Intermediate and final assessments

are ensured to advance students to

the next learning phase.

▪ Institutions are managerially and

physically organized.

▪ Leads to a formally recognized

certificate.

▪ Easy access to jobs.

DISADVANTAGES

INFORMAL EDUCATION.

• The knowledge attained cannot

always be reliable.

• No proper time schedule.

• Unpredictable results.

• Learners lack confidence.

• Absence of discipline.

• No professional guidance.

• No certification or degree.

• Utilized techniques and means can be

inappropriate.

• Can alter good ethics and habits.

• Attained misinformation can be

badly influential.

• Unreliable learning sources.

• Very slow improvisation process due to

trial-and-error method

FORMAL EDUCATION

▪ Sometimes, brilliant students are

bored due to the long wait for the

expiry of the academic session to

promote to the next stage

▪ Chance of bad habits’ adoption may

be alarming due to the presence of

both good and bad students in the

classroom

▪ Some unprofessional and non standard education

system may cause the wastage of time and

money of the students which leads to

the disappointment from formal

education and argue them to go for

non-formal education.

▪ Costly and rigid education as

compare to other forms of learning