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JAMB Use of English 1991 Question 10

Question 10

Comprehension
JAMB 1991 Passage II: Why study the humanities
The preparation which a study of the humanities can provide, stems from three observations about education in our world of accelerating social and technological change. First, with the rate of change, we cannot hope to train our students for specific technologies. That kind of vocational education is obsolescent. By the time the students graduate, the technologies will have moved on. If our education consists of narrow training, we will not be prepared to change. Second, and paradoxically, what our students desire from their education is preparation for specific careers – business, engineering, medicine, computer programming and the like, but we will not be able to train them for a life-long career. Their confronting the depressed job market gives our students a certain anxiety, but the solution they seek in vocational training is not sufficient. Third, we sense in our students a narrowing materialism, with the good life defined in terms of material comforts. Education, then means learning to do a job which will make money. I see in this definition a limiting sense of what education and thus life offer, a definition which excludes joy and meaning.

Our approach to the study of the humanities responds to these three related problems. In our changing, yet narrowing world, the teaching of the humanities finds one powerful justification – it teaches students how to think.

What type of education does the writer advocate for our students?

  1. A.Vocational as well as technological education
  2. B.Business, engineering, medicine and computer programming
  3. C.Technological education plus the humanities
  4. D.Technological education only
Show the answer and explanation

Answer: C (Technological education plus the humanities)

Explanation

The writer does not reject technical training but argues that the humanities must be added to it to teach students how to think.