Broken education is the reason we do not see remarkable opportunities
A broken education system requires the most attention from all the things wrong with our society, but unfortunately, it is disregarded and ignored the most. We do not understand the detrimental consequences of a broken education system, but it harms our children from the core. Let’s look into the “How’s” and “Whys” of this broken system.
Some ways the System of Education is Broken:
To get to the core of the issue, we will look into some examples of how the system of education is broken:
Unchanged Schooling Paradigm
If you look at the schools of about 100 years ago and today’s schools, you will not be able to figure out the difference, except one of them not being colored. The entire schooling paradigm is the same, and the same teaching methods are being used, even though many real-life examples exist that prove this method to be obsolete.
No Space for Innovation and Progress
The lack of opportunities to build new things and learn new skills is a big problem in our education system. All the students are forced to study the same old courses, with the teachers and school administration scorning over the children that want to release their potential elsewhere. With time, those students’ potential dies down, and they are left with nothing of their own.
No Work on Students’ Mental Health & Wellbeing
There are specific times in a course or a term where maximum pressure is applied to the students, as they are overwhelmed by the teachers’ quizzes and assignments. Moreover, the outline demands the course be taught at an unreasonable speed, which ultimately drains the students both physically and mentally as they try to catch up. It also explains the growing anxiety and depression in youth, although they were meant to be the liveliest society members.
Training Students Only for The Corporate World
As mentioned before, everything about a school is potentially the same. From the dress code to bell timings, none of this makes any sense. It’s nothing different than prisoners that are demanded to wear a particular dress code, and are forced to work from dawn to dusk in community service. Students are not being prepared to live a life but are being prepared to serve others.
Lack of Opportunities for Growth and Creativity
Even if the possibility of growth and creativity for students exists, the schools and families force an environment where students lack the opportunity to grow and are made to live according to the terms and wishes of the school and parents. In essence, it is nothing different than cutting the wings of a bird and teaching it how to swim (duck is an exception).
Excessive Bullying in Schools
It is a serious problem that administrations do not pay attention to. Other students bully many students, and it adds to the victims’ trauma and changes their lives forever. As long as they are kids, the bullies are innocent too, but if they are not observed and disciplined on time, their life will also be impacted as they grow up to lose all the empathy within them.
How Students Lack Opportunities?
As it is quite obvious, students are the biggest victims of a broken education system. In this case, the lack of opportunities for students is the result of a broken system. Let’s look more into it below:
Lack of State-of-the-Art Facilities in Schools
As of today, coding and engineering are the biggest and more diversified fields, but unfortunately, most of the schools do not even have professional teachers or facilities for teaching students these skills. If possible, they are forced to learn these things outside of school, but the parents often express their disapproval and discourage their children from pursuing these lines.
Outdated Books, Curriculum, and Courses
The books taught to children are being obsolete, as the scientific and intellectual world is progressing far ahead of what these books teach. Since the curriculum and courses are designed according to the books, they too have become outdated. In other words, students will be studying things they won’t be using ahead, and thus, will be deprived of a lot of opportunities.
Students are Judged Based on Their Grades
It is probably the root of all evil. The grading system was initially used to determine the best laborers for industries during the industrial revolution, but they have been carried on to this point. The world already realizes that many students are not good at textbook cramming but are quite capable practically. Unfortunately, they are forced to cram and are left behind the race. It leads to a lot of unexplored potential in our society.
Why Students Lack Opportunities to Pursue their Passion?
Finally, let’s look into the core of the issue, i.e., the “background” reasons that lead to this lack of opportunities. By extension, that is forcing the education system to remain broken:
Forceful and Unnecessary Curriculum
As discussed before, the curriculum taught to students is outdated. However, even if the books and curriculum were updates, it gives no reason to teach students all the unnecessary subjects that will not be useful to them in the future. From a holistic perspective, this is a waste of time, as the time spent learning and cramming these unnecessary things could have been used to master new skills or attain more useful knowledge (for each student).
Schools Presume Students’ Capabilities
The judgmental behavior displayed by the schools and the teachers is also a very big problem. Based on observation made with a lack of context, the administration simply assumes that a student is good or bad at something. Even though the reality may be quite different, students are often pushed to pursue those presumed capabilities, and it ultimately wastes their potential and holds them back.
Stakeholders are Benefiting from this System
So far, the corporate industry has benefitted a lot from this education system. That’s because they get all the obedient and submissive employees, they need to run their businesses, and a change in this system would mean a complete overhaul of the system that would impact their businesses in the long-run. The governments, on the other hand, understand this and are reluctant to bring about change too.
What we can do to make our future bright.
If we will allow our kids to rely on the education they are getting in schools and colleges there are chances that they will also become the part of a rat race that is never ending. That is why it is essential that we innovate the education system with the evolving world. We are in the state of 4th revolution and it is need of hour that our kids understand what is coming next.
Teach coding
Our kids need to learn coding in order to survive in future. All types of jobs and businesses will be of no use if kids do not know how to code. Our technology and innovations rely on coding. That is why it is essential to take the necessary step and assure that our children learn how to code.
Do projects
We all know that there are many online courses available that teach your how to code that’s it. The biggest mistake we make here is kids do learn to code but it will be forgotten with time if they do not implement it. That is why it is necessary for our kids to participate in actual coding and engineering projects that will allow our kids to explore their talent. It will teach them to get creative experiment with the knowledge of coding that they have.
Sadly, our education system does not motivate students to follow their passion in coding and engineering. So the time has come that parents take all necessary steps to assure their kids will get all the opportunities they need to follow their true passion.
Final Thoughts.
If we truly want to fix our education system, we will have to correct our priorities. What do we want? Bunch of machines that exist to serve industries or capable people who can create new and unique things and contribute something constructive to the world?
