Where is Education heading today?

Learn, Unlearn and Relearn

As different cultures are moving towards Higher Education, Literacy Rates across the globe are the latest benchmark for students willing to study further, enhance their careers, and score more marks. The introduction of technology into schools and universities has definitely interested students and made them even enroll into courses which they least like. The intention is great but the methodology has flaws wherein the main purpose of educational systems is to educate and not emphasize on grades, which is actually a by-product of the child’s learning capabilities. Let us take for example, the topic of thermodynamics, the idea is to understand the laws of thermodynamics and how is it relevant to us or how has it affected us today. Is this happening in schools and universities today? No, would be the answer in most cases. The process is as follows, Study, Score great marks and make a mark for yourself in a company like Google. Microsoft etc. The essence of teaching and learning is as good as gone where the objective of seeking is absent and obeying is present.

Add to this, school and university fees, enrolment rates, availability of courses, student teacher ratio, on campus fees that could lead to a scenario in the future where the educational systems could collapse considering the rate at which competition is increasing and schools are turning into battlegrounds for many parents. As of today, everyone has cheap phones and data to browse on any topic and learn them from any part of the world; this shows that anyone is capable of understanding a topic in their regional language at the comfort of their home. Most libraries have been replaced by phones and electronic devices, mental mathematics is replaced by calculators where the mental ability to use our brains is collapsing at a rapid pace. Knowledge is taught at schools and universities but how to apply is up to us which is a personal inherent nature. Intelligence is the observational or research based where we know the reason behind that knowledge. Genius is how we make use of our intelligence to create things around us.

90% of our education is already available on the Internet and different people have different opinions on a particular topic. The top experts in every field are a finger click away as of today and anyone can listen to their lectures and learn about various topics, which then leads one to think that what is the point of learning everything from scratch in schools and universities when I could learn the latest developments in my field by seeing YouTube or reading online on Google. The education systems would thus need a big revamping in terms of updating themselves, inviting the latest pioneers in particular fields to give lectures, making students go and do internships at companies where they are taught how to apply their knowledge to real world.

Qualifications and Degrees are leading the way in today’s worlds where educational values are declining. An average person today could have more knowledge than a doctor, engineer or lawyer by learning on the internet and could earn a similar degree similar to them. In most of the cases today, by looking at a degree such a BA, MBA, MS, one gains confidence in the person irrespective of whether the person is able to apply his knowledge for practical purposes . The content, structure of educational systems is not the problem but the methodology on how to achieve that particular degree and qualification.

iPads, Tablets, Audio Video Content have structured a student’s brain to understand a difficult topic, which would make someone feel that, is the student even using his or her brain to work out or search on basic stuff. Encoded technology into education will only increase the analytical thinking of students to analyze on various viewpoints, which is also an advantage. An average engineering course takes 4 years but what is taught in those 4 years or why is it taking 4 years needs to be researched in depth in educational councils across the globe considering the dropout ratio or lack of enrolment in a particular course.

Rote Learning has become a thing of the past wherein there is no need to learn, repeat and repeat because with a click on the phone, the answer is in front of us so there is enough education present on the internet to earn a degree but what the system should focus on is what is not present during a time. Does this mean, our thinking capacity will collapse and we will become dependent on machine learning? It is very unlikely because oral traditions still do exist in countries such as India and China from where most of the students go abroad and fare very well in academics. In addition, Distance learning is now the front face of education system, which is here to stay according to various researches.

There is also a huge gap between the education systems and real world as of today where students are lacking the depth of subjects compared to how it was 20–30 years back. Cultural and Social aspects also sometimes contribute to the stunting of growth in students where it creates a binary mode of analysis and no out of the box thinking. Therefore, in this case, students should leverage technology since young age under guidance to learn on various topics of their interests, which would help them to think as well as analyze on it.

Every house can be a school and every student can be a teacher by himself or herself with the help of technology. Processes and theories need to simplified, and practical applications can be taught at any comfort zone thus empowering students through education.

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