When I mention asking students about the purpose of education, this is something I had done at the University, and overwhelmingly received the replies I mentioned in the script. And for those who feel that I have used that final quote on a previous occasion, they are right. One of the things you eventually realise about radio pieces like Thought for the Day is that they vanish on the wind and are forgotten in moments. It is only when they are on a website like this that you can compare one script with another that might have been written a number of years previously.

Yesterday, in a hushed silence and with a reverential air, young people across Scotland began their annual participation in a ritual event with profound meaning for their lives. In the hallowed halls of schools across the country they bowed their heads and looked within themselves for answers that would satisfy their Standard Grade inquisitors.

And for those who have already passed that baptism of academic fire in previous years, the Highers await next week. Yes, it’s exam time again, when we test our young people in those areas of knowledge which we as a society consider worth paying good money to teach them.

Education, education, education is our modern mantra, though it would not seem to be a particularly new idea. Muhammad said “The search for knowledge is a sacred duty for every muslim”, though I’m sure he saw knowledge as something much more all-embracing than Standard Grades.

When most politicians talk of education they seem to see it exclusively in terms of training for employability and wealth creation. But what will it profit a man if he gain the whole world and never gains an awareness of the spirit that will enable him to learn how to enjoy it. Wealth and employment are useful, but not the sole purpose of life.

Yet the current political education philosophy now suffuses the whole system. Ask almost any child or student the purpose of their education, and the chances are you will hear not of the intrinsic pleasure involved in studying a subject, but the expectation of a good job and financial reward for the effort involved.

And what awaits those who survive the mental and emotional strain of the exams that bring the chapters of their formal education to a close? More than half of Scottish workers in a recent poll admit to feeling “burnt out” from work related stress.

A sense of purpose and enjoyment of life involves so much more than wealth creation. The Prophet said “Riches are pleasant and sweet, and a blessing for one who acquires them on the way. But they are no blessing for one who acquires them out of greed, like one who eats but is never filled.”