Massa Ndong

Project 4: Op-Ed
Monday, June 3rd, 2013
Professor Denise K. Comer

Is E-learning satisfactory for primary education?

Many talented people worked hard and for a very long time in their respective area of
expertise to gain world-recognition. Different case studies can be presented to show the steps
taken by a particular individual to reach expertise. However, the process of fostering talent
from a plethora of potential candidates has been mostly eluded or subject to unsatisfactory
discourses.
The current trend in education is to use computer based programs to teach course materials to
a wide range of people. From topics such as Is it necessary to teach computer science in
primary school, we have reached the level of statements such as Face-to-face teaching with
a teacher in the same class as the students is obsolete. On the one hand, E-learning provides
tools for education. On the other hand, quick-learners in primary school can forge ahead with
E-learning whereas the primary education remains inadequate for the pupils. The lack of
suitability is inherent to educative systems based on segregating between the quick-learners
and the others. The main criteria of such segregation are the results achieved by the
test-takers at some period of their lives.
Primary school is an early period for the development of a person. From this stage, a child is
able to practice and build the basis to rise at a high level of expertise in a given domain.
Examples of people who started to develop their talent at that stage are the Williams sisters,
Tiger Woods, etc. However, the fostering environment of such cases is different from the
primary education sphere. The E-learning educative system has a similar fostering
environment as the one used to raise the previously cited examples of talented people. The
goal is subjective as the performance measure is the score achieved when resorting to such
system. Thus, in this sense, E-learning is a sieve to select some pupils and drop the others.
Applying E-learning as an educational system in primary education restrains the potential of
the plethora of pupils who present themselves to acquire an education. The primary education
should offer equality; i.e. every pupil should be provided with the tools to develop his abilities.
At a certain stage in his/her life, he/she will resort on his knowledge in using the tools to
decide to develop a certain range of abilities and neglect others. The equality in primary
education consists of providing the tools to the pupils for them to develop by themselves some

abilities or to discover them. From the acquired knowledge and developing him/herself his/her
potential in a chosen area at a later period of his/her life, the talent is not biased by test score;
it is a genuine talent with great self-satisfaction besides the professional reward.
E-learning should be an additional tool to the education provided face-to-face to pupils at
primary education stage. It is not a satisfactory educational system as it hinders the potential
of the plethora of pupils registered to acquire a primary education. The finding of talent should
be a cognitive process by the talent person. The education provided at an early age should be a
set of guidelines to facilitate the cognition.