Education as a service

Education is a service industry; Islanders purchased upwards of $275 million dollars’ worth of educational services last year for our young people alone, and many millions more for the rest of us. I’ve searched for a list of services offered, or provided, but without success. In the absence of an official list, I’ve created the one below. it is for educational services generally and not just for young people in school.

Educational services available on P.E.I.:

- Information directed to any and all Islanders who are involved in making decisions about their own or someone else’s education.

- Instruction to include teaching as offered by schools, colleges, universities, summer camps, cadets, independent learners or who seek help from others on a volunteers or fee for service basis.

- Diagnosis, similar to a visit to a family doctor, to identify the nature and extent of educational help needed

- Tutoring, mentoring or coaching which is my way of describing all of the one-on-one help provided by one person to another.

- Guided practice is time needed to practice what has been learned.

- Feedback which may result from a learners’ performance on assignments, assessments, competitions, supervised practice or other such activities

- Materials and technology includes the instructional resources, other than people, available to help learners learn.

Some people include grading and credentialing as an educational service; my search says that they are important but not part of education so I have left them off my list.

The search continues.

Don Glendenning,

A long-time student of education