A Take on Equality by Leaning on Education


By UOW Malaysia KDU

WHAT makes you human?

About 100 years ago, if your father was a fisherman, then a fisherman you would be. If your family tended a farm, a farm you would then inherit.

And if your parents were slaves or servants, then that was all you could ever hope for.

This inequality of opportunities has changed, and that change has to do with what makes us human, no matter where we come from, what we are, what gender we may be, what we like or don’t like.

Naturalists spent decades looking for the answer to this question: What makes us human?

We must feed, find shelter and procreate just like animals, so what might make us different from them? What is that one special, unique trait or ability that separates beasts from humans?

Can it be our ability to communicate? That is not unique because ants, dolphins and chimpanzees have complex communication methods and social lives to boot.

Maybe it is because we know how to use tools? Primates love to take large leaves to use as umbrellas in the rain. Otters and fish use stones to break molluscs. Some birds impale large insects on thorns to feed at leisure.

What, then, is that one thing, that one power, that sets humans apart from all other living beings on Earth?

Some naturalists believe it is our ability to put abstract objects outside of our brains.

In short, we know how to read and write.

It started as drawings on cave walls, which allowed cavemen to teach their young hunting strategies.

Across millennia, these drawings evolved into symbols worked into stone, wood, paper and today, into hard disks by the millions of terabytes.

This ability enabled humans to transfer what they know with astounding detail to other humans, even hundreds of years after their deaths.

But knowledge alone is like raw bolts of electricity.

To harness and channel it, education is necessary and today, a wonderful system of teaching and learning exists so that people may learn of what their forefathers learned, and then develop and refine that knowledge further.

UOW Malaysia KDU holds fast to the belief that education is the greatest equaliser of the human realm.

There is no such thing as being born into something, or being fated to be something. Given a chance to learn and be taught, anyone can be anything they want to be, no matter what they were born with.

To send this message of equality through education clearly, UOW Malaysia KDU commissioned a sculpture simply called the Equality Bench, which is now on its Selangor campus.

It functions as a low bench for you to sit on, is marked with the hashtag #EQUALITY and painted with the colours of the rainbow.

As the light of the sun shines on all even though — unseen — it is the amalgamation of rays of many hues, so too does equality pervades the diversity of humankind.

All it takes is for one to be able to read and write, to have an open mind and to have access to education.

For those less endowed with material wealth, UOW Malaysia KDU prepares a wide range of scholarships, including full waiver of tuition fees, to ensure equal access to top-notch education for all.

To expand the education further, UOW Malaysia KDU provides access for its students to study in the world network of University of Wollongong’s campuses, giving students a chance for not only international learning but also an immersive experience of the global community.

For more information on education on UOW Malaysia KDU, visit www.uowmkdu.edu.my.

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15 October 2021

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UOW Malaysia KDU



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