The Banking Concept of Education

This article discusses the drawbacks of the traditional 'banking' concept of education, where teachers deposit information into students who are expected to be passive recipients. The author supports the idea of problem-posing education, where students and teachers collaborate in a dialogue to jointly come to conclusions regarding problems. The article also highlights the pros and cons of each system.

Running head: THE BANKING CONCEPT OF EDUCATION
The Banking concept of Education
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1THE BANKING CONCEPT OF EDUCATION
The thing that makes humans a human is their ability to think and use their brain.
Human are not like the other animals, which are incapable of comprehending what is going
on and around them and thus, cannot able to adapt and adjust with the situation. But when the
ability of thinking is taken away from the human beings, they are then compelled to accept
what so ever is presented to them and they follow them blindly. Freire in his chapter two-
“The Banking Concept of Education” is combination of the political, educational and the
philosophical theory. From his point of view, awakening of critical awareness and thinking
process among the individual is the ultimate solution to liberation (Freire 100). It takes place
by means of a new type of education- the one that creates partnership in between the students
and their teachers, thus, empowering the students to enter into a dialogue and start
humanisation by means of thought and action.
As per Freire, the people who are oppressed need to consider themselves, understand
their situation and try to think regarding the world and it happens with the help of dialogue in
the education system. Furthermore, it is also to mention that Freire calls the conventional
relationship of student and teacher “banking education”. In such a broken and oppressive
system, teachers retain the control and play the role of oppressor and on the other hand, the
students are expected to be passive natured and follower. Teachers are seen to be depositing
the information into the students who they regard as an empty container for the deposits.
When I was in my school years, I too had to mug up each and everything that my teachers
used to teach me. In fact, I also had to copy the way my teachers used to solve a
mathematical problem because if I think of doing it on my own way, bringing out correct
answer, still I was not given marks because my way of solving the problem was different
from that of my teachers.
I believe that Freire is true and I do agree with his perception. He has constantly made
his readers think of themselves, as if he is pointing put the things that are obvious in life but

2THE BANKING CONCEPT OF EDUCATION
still, are hidden to our naked eyes. As per Freire, the problem posing education is one of the
successful alternative to the traditional education. This type of education is organised in a
way for encouraging the thinking among the students and the students and the teachers in this
form of education enter into collaboration and partnership in a dialogue for jointly coming to
conclusions regarding the problems. Also, according to him, the students and the teachers
learn from each other. Moreover, Freire has presented a brief analysis of the problem posing
system and the banking system and have also highlighted the pros and cons of each of them.
He has shown the present situation of how the students are ridden of their true education that
their parents pay for and are forced to accept the concepts stated by their teacher (Freire).
Hence, it is to state that Paulo Freire is completely against the education system that he
classified as the “banking” concept of education and he supports the notion that education
must be a collaborative process in which both the students and the teachers think critically
and work together.

3THE BANKING CONCEPT OF EDUCATION
Works Cited
Freire, Paolo. "Pedagogy of the oppressed, New York (Herder & Herder) 1970." (1970).
Freire, Paulo. "The “banking” concept of education." (1970): 92-102.