How To Write A Speech On Education (With Sample Speech)

“Education is the most powerful weapon that you can use to change the world.” 

These words by Nelson Mandela pretty much sum up the importance of education in the life of human beings. Without education, human beings wouldn’t have arrived at the stage they are right now, and it is unlikely that we will be able to continue our missions to space progressively without education. 

And yet the truth remains that many, many people across the world do not have the right or ability to receive an education. Many of these people might be able to do great things if only they had the means to do so.

In such a scenario, it becomes important to spread awareness about education. Delivering speeches is one of the best ways to do so, as through speeches one can make a more personal connection with the people attending & make it more likely that they will actually do something about it.

However, it’s also true that education is a topic that many, many people have spoken about. In such a scenario, you might find yourself wondering what you can do to make your speech stand apart from all the ones that came before. 

Don’t worry, that’s what we’re here to help you with.

By keeping in mind a few things like finding a unique angle, incorporating stories and props, making sure to include concrete elements, and making your audience go beyond listening to feel something, you can easily deliver an unforgettable speech on education.

Tips To Keep In Mind While Writing A Speech About Education 

1. Find A Unique Angle 

Education is a topic that people have spoken about time and again. What this means is that if you deliver a speech about education without adding a different point of view to it, then the chances are your audience is going to find your speech bland or boring and not pay attention.

So, find a unique angle for the speech. Draw on your personal experiences and ask yourself: is there anything about this topic that I can see but others can’t?

2. Include Concrete Elements 

Concrete details or elements include things like facts, statistics, etc. 

If you don’t include concrete elements in your speech, then chances are that your speech will become abstract and hard to believe really fast.

So, make sure to back up your arguments with relevant information. 

Wondering how to add facts to your speech without making it drab? Check out our article on 11 Steps To Add Facts To A Speech Without Making It Boring.

3. Use Language & Concepts Familiar To The Audience

Often, speakers have this misconception that the bigger or more difficult words they use, the better or smarter they’re going to sound. This cannot be further from the truth.

While using complicated words or concepts might make you sound smarter, they also increase the chances that you won’t be able to formulate a connection with the audience. 

After all, if they can’t understand what they’re saying, how will they connect with it?

4. Incorporate Storytelling & Props 

Stories are a GREAT way to make your speech more personal and engaging. And props, if used alongside your story, can take it to the next level. 

So, make sure to incorporate appropriate personal stories and props in your speech. Make sure that your prop is relevant to the speech, and not merely an accessory. 

5. Make Them Feel, Not Just Hear 

If you truly want your audience to be impacted by your speech, then you need to make them feel more deeply about it. You need to make them go beyond hearing and actually feel for you and the topic. 

This can be done by sprinkling throughout your speech elements like humor, stories, props, videos, real-life testimonials, interacting with them…

The list goes on. 

What matters is going above and beyond. You want to make your words mean more than their meaning. 

6. Use Humor

Humor is a great way to take any speech to the next level. Like stories, jokes are a great way to form a connection with the audience and make your speech more memorable.

However, one thing to keep in mind here is to make sure that your humor is relevant to the topic at hand. Don’t just add jokes for the sake of adding them: make sure that they relate to your speech in some way.

7. Don’t Have Too Many Points

While it’s important to make sure that your speech covers all aspects that it needs to cover, you don’t have to include too many points in your speech. This will make it difficult for the audience to figure out what, exactly, is the central theme or main message that you want them to take away.

You can have one or two key takeaways and divide those main points into multiple individual points. This will allow for better structure of your speech, whilst also making it easier to view it from multiple angles.

Ways To Begin Your Speech On Education 

1. Open With A Story 

This is a tried and tested way to open your speech. As mentioned before, it’s imperative you incorporate stories into your speech if you wish to make a personal connection with the audience and make them feel for your speech.

And what better place to add a story than right at the opening of your speech? 

For example: My parents spent their entire savings on my brother’s education, but for me, they wouldn’t even spare a…

For more ideas on how to incorporate stories in your speech, check out our article on 9 Storytelling Approaches For Your Next Speech Or Presentation.

2. Make Them Go ‘A-Ha’ 

Another awesome way to open your speech is by surprising your audience. This will awaken them, and snap their attention to where it needs to be: on you. 

This adds doubly to your credit if your speech is on a seemingly monotonous topic like education where the audience enters with certain expectations about the speech already in place. 

There are many ways to do this. Stories with a twist are one. Another would be incorporating a joke. Yet another way would be to pull out a prop. Or you could even say a surprising statement that seems to go against the topic when you first hear it.

For example: I don’t think education is important. Unless…

3. Common-Ground Open 

A common ground opening is imperative if there is a gap between you and your audience. If, for example, you’re an aged professor from a reputed university and the audience is teenagers from a local high school, then there are going to be gaps in how you and the audience perceive the world. 

You can bridge this gap in a couple of ways. One would be making a personal connection or making them see that you are similar in certain aspects. This can be done by using humor, incorporating stories, or even making a pop culture reference. You can also open with a shared goal or interest. 

For example: When I was in high school, all I wanted to do was get out of it.

4. Open With A Show Of Hands 

Another great way to open your speech is by asking questions–particularly show of hands questions. 

This works in two ways: asking the question piques your audience’s attention and gets their thoughts rolling. On the other hand, show-of-hands provides them with a chance to move their body, which aids in making them more aware of their surroundings i.e you. 

For example: How many of you wish you could get out of this classroom right now?

5. Open With An Image Or Prop 

Images tell stories. And stories, as mentioned above, are one of the best ways to open your speech. 

You can open your speech by showing the audience an image of something and then asking them a question about it or presenting a startling fact about it. Alternatively, you could also open your speech by employing a relevant prop. 

For example: Start off with an image of a refugee in a school.

Need more inspiration for how to open your speech? Check out our article on 10 Of The Best Things To Say In Opening Remarks.

Sample Speech On Education

Title: The Missing Ramp

On a school field trip in grade 3, I met my long lost twin.

Or so I thought, anyway.

The boy I met wasn’t actually my twin by blood. But he was my exact replica in every other aspect: from the color of our hair and eyes to the kind of jokes we liked to make and the cartoons we loved to watch and the fact that we both felt a little out of place in the big strange world.

We were similar in more aspects than we could count, more than I can remember now. However, we were significantly different in one important aspect: While I was a ten year old, happy-go-lucky kid that hated going to school, he was a ten year old, happy go-lucky kid for whom school was a distant dream.

You see, Andrew–the boy I thought was my twin–had a locomotor disability. He had to use a weelchair to be able to move around.

However, there was only one school in our little town, and the school had no ramps or elevators, making it impossible for him to navigate by himself the five floors that it comprised. Not only this, but there were no washrooms available for him, either.

His mother could not afford to lose her job in town, not with the already soaring cost of his treatement. Her meagre salary meant that a private tutor was out of question.

Besides, she thought, what was the point of uprooting her entire life to move to another town or city when–according to her–there was no point in educating her child when he could not do anything with it?

And so, despite the fact that he was perfectly capable of learning at par with the rest of us, Andrew never got an education.

Imagine that.

Imagine being unable to go to school when all the other kids around you are doing so because the school does not have a ramp.

It sounds absurd, right?

However strange or unreal it may sound, it’s the reality of the lives of many, many children with disabilities. It’s not that they’re unwilling to learn or their parents are unwilling to send them to school. It’s the lack of facilities–many of which the rest of us take for granted–which make it impossible for them to attend school.

And even when the facilities are available. Even then, many, many children with disabilites are unable to achieve the education that is their basic right.

An estimated one in three out-of-school children have a disability. There are between 93 million and 150 million children with disabilities worldwide. And yet, WHO estimates that in many, many countries across the world, having a disability more than doubles the chances of a child never attending school.

While accessibility remains the key factor that inhibits children with disabilities from attending school, there are many, many other factors that come into play. Inflexible teacher training & support is another factor that comes into play. As does inflexible curriculum and poor structure and plan.

However, another key factor that prevents children with disabilites from attending school has less to do with the physical elements of education, and more with the mindset and mentality of other people.

That is, it has to do with the attitude of children and teachers in school towards children with disabilites.

Often, children with disabilites are scorned and made fun of by their peers. And this is not limited to students alone.

The teachers, too, might share a callous attitiude and be inflexible in their approach. I had a teacher in my school who refused to change her ‘ alphabetical seating plan’ to allow a deaf girl sit in the first bench so that she could lip-read her instructions.

What this means is that many times, the children themseleves might not be willing to go to school from the fear of how their peers and teachers might react to or treat them.

While delivering speeches about making education accessible to all or how it is the fundamental right of every person, we tend to make grand statements and all the big steps that we need to–or should–take in order to actually make education more accessible to people.

And yet, while making all those grandoise proclamations, we often overlook the little steps that each and every single one of us needs to take. In seeing the ‘big picture’, we ignore the all the little snapshots that go into making it.

And yet, it is this little things that make the most difference.

A missing ramp–that’s all it took to make a child miss out on his dream of going to school.

I don’t think any words sum up my words better than something Annie Campbell said: “We can teach our children to flap their wings, but conditions have to be just right for them to fly.”

Our children are ready to take the leap and fly. Now it is upon us to determine what the sky will be like: full or rain or brimming with sunshine.

Different Angles To Cover Your Speech From

There are many different angles to cover your speech from. Some of them have been mentioned below.

1. Accessibility Of Education
2. The Digital Divide
3. Peer Pressure
4. Online Education vs. Offline Education
5. Education Of Girl Child
6. Education Schemes
7. Mental Health Of Students
8. Effectiveness Of Curriculum
9. Classroom Learning vs. Real Life Experiences
10. Teaching Strategies
11. Education For People With Disabilities
12. Bullying In Schools
13. Importance Of Physical Education For Students
14. Vocational Studies & Their Importance
15. Rising Cost Of Education
16. Privatization Of Education
17. Factors Affecting Student Performance
18. Importance Of Arts & Language Education
19. Importance Of Field Trips
20. Technology In The Classroom
21. Importance Of Public Speaking For Students
22. Different Learning Styles
23. Impact Of Social Media On Learning

Sample Speech Topics On Education

Here are some examples of topics for your speech on education.

1 What affects the performance of kids in school?
2. Significance of compulsory attendance
3. Homeschooling: Benefits and drawbacks
4. How is literacy different from education?
5. What does the future of the education industry look like?
6. How does Switzerland have the best education system?
7. How to ace college application essays?
8. Guide to optimize daily planner: Your guiding light to lead a productive life
9. Use the power of storytelling to make history lessons ‘fun’
10. How to unlock the potential of your subconscious mind to memorize things better?
11. Beating distractions: How to make the most of online classes?
12. Sleep deprivation is not ‘cool’: How to improve your grades through proper sleep?
13. A Step-by-Step Guide to writing a stellar research paper
14. Why periodic assessment of teachers is necessary
15. The need for psychologists and therapists in school
16. Why positive peer pressure can be a game-changer
17. Why sports should be a graded component in schools
18. The need for adequate sleep
19. Why application-based learning is necessary
20. Shorter school days for the win
21. Why recreational reading is also important
22. The need for sex education in school

Conclusion

To conclude, while writing a speech on education, you need to make sure that your speech isn’t bland or overused. By keeping in mind a few things like finding a unique angle, incorporating stories and props, making sure to include concrete elements, and making your audience go beyond listening to feel something, you can easily deliver an unforgettable speech on education.