Does the modern education system has the potential to change the world as we know it? Let’s find out.

Many nations across the world have embraced the importance of the education system. However, little progress has been made to improve it. The lack of progress results from the lack of vision or awareness of the needs of today’s generations of learners. College and university administrators have shifted their priorities away from the main aim of education. As a result, the role of the teacher is diminished, and the consequences are already visible.

According to research done in 2009, only half of the faculty members in higher education were part-timers. However, due to the resources that are involved in classroom instruction and student research services, the part-time faculty members now outnumber permanent faculty. This is one of the new challenges the higher education is facing.

In one way or another, the modern education system is changing. However, the main question remains: is the current education system changing the world or not? This article highlights 5 signs that unravel a mystery: perhaps the current education may not be changing this world as we expected.

1. The education system is purposely exam-oriented

The modern education system remains exam-oriented, just like it always was. We rely on routine memorization as the key approach to education. Schools are still using test scores as the primary criteria to analyze the knowledge and skills of students. As a result, the overall education system is somewhat authoritarian in nature. We are made to believe that good test scores are the key to achieving success.

Teachers are not emphasizing the importance of being creative, innovative and diverse. They don’t bother to discover talents; they just want to see how good the students are at memorizing. In the end, if feels like a hopeless situation that’s killing the creativity of many students. For that reason, many parents prefer homeschooling over public school education.

The schools continue to ignore important methods such as discussion, training, and research to discover talent. From the looks of it, the current education will not change the world in terms of enhancing students’ creative thinking and problem-solving skills.

2. Teachers fail to focus on skill development

Developed countries like China and Singapore have diverted their focus on skill development. Through that method, they have achieved a great improvement in industrial growth. However, there is a huge gap between the need for developing skills and the education students are receiving in the rest of the world. The system provides us with the knowledge, but we’re not seeing any progress in learning the technical skills for using that knowledge.

Most countries lack an education system that can stimulate children and encourage the learning skills they need for achieving their full potential. This means that we need a curriculum with practical and vocational learning aside from the theoretical studies.

We need this change because the world is changing, but the education system has not evolved fast enough. Most people are attracted to intelligence, not education.

3. The teachers don’t get the support and training they need

The modern education system does not support people in discovering what they enjoy or what they are good at. It is a matter of ‘go to school, choose a course you have no idea of, get a degree and graduate.’ Teachers also lack support and encouragement from the government to respond to the needs of today’s students.

The students simply learn for the sake of learning and complete the syllabus as directed. They have no idea why they are in school and why they are taking the course they choose. They fail to connect the dots as they are facing an existential crisis, which is regular in the current generation.

If we want to make education the driving vehicle to success, then the current system needs to focus on offering support to teachers. Young people will have the interest to learn if they see learning as meaningful, important and worthwhile. That’s how the teachers need to present it.

4. Governments are not investing enough finances in education

Currently, most countries in the world are in need of funds to sustain their educational activities, such as hiring teachers, constructing new schools, organizing workshops, and so on. As a result, it has become hard to raise sufficient funds for educational reforms.

On the other hand, the teacher-student ratio is low, and that affects the growth of students. Similarly, the quality of education delivered in schools is questionable. There are inadequate teaching and reading materials in some parts of the world. For instance, in some countries, you will find worn out and outdated textbooks that are shared by more than five students.

5. Education is denied to disabled and poor students

We’re all aware of the fact that education is a universal human right, anywhere in the world. Unfortunately, this basic right is denied to people with disabilities. The lack of proper training of teachers, discrimination and negativity leave poor and disabled students vulnerable to getting their right to education.

For instance, more than 100 million living in developing countries cannot read or write. This can be due to conflict, poverty, and discrimination. In the end, poverty forces families to choose which kid to send to school.

On the other hand, people living in a place with war or conflict may not see the need for education, since they don’t feel secure. War negatively impacts the education system in a country.

As a result, its economy is affected and the generation may suffer from things such as lack of education, inflation, and so on. We’re still not seeing the end to the wars, so the children in these countries don’t get the chance to get educated and change the world.

Conclusion

If we expect the modern education system to change the world, we have to stop seeing the curriculum alone as the core differentiator. As soon as they graduate, the students will be judged by how well they can turn what they have learned into useful practice. That’s where we should focus our attention.

Due to technological advancement, people are shunning away from education. Who could blame them? It is the same old system that does not guarantee the technical skills that are needed in the current world, so they tend to find the information they need online.

Maybe if we focus the education system on skill development instead of memorizing information for the sake of getting grades, it will become meaningful again.


Copyright © 2012-2024 Learning Mind. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint, contact us.

power of misfits book banner desktop

Like what you are reading? Subscribe to our newsletter to make sure you don’t miss new thought-provoking articles!

This Post Has 6 Comments

  1. akshay

    Modern education/online education the new era of learning and traditional education our primitive method of learning. There arises much confusion regarding this learning system. Let’s see the differences and choose which is best. The modern education gives us many more benefits than traditional education was unable to give us.

  2. Arun

    A good article about drawbacks of modern education. Its very informative how we came from a primitive to this modern education. Very helpful article.Very relevant information.

  3. vishnu

    Well said. You are able to show the pros of traditional education and cons of modern education. As far of this era the youngsters and the coming generation would prefer the modern education over traditional education. Even though a good article and there are many things that a modern education fails to give us which can only be achieved through traditional education.

    1. Martha S. Lyon

      Hi Vishnu: What are the pros of traditional education and the cons of modern education that the author lists or shows readers some other way? I ask because I’ve been unable to find any reference to “traditional,” and, truth be told, there is no such thing as “modern” education, at least not in the U.S. The U.S. has had two versions of the traditional. The pre-1966-70 version which, though in need of improvement, worked better than anything post-1966. The other version is the post-1966 (or thereabouts) that includes all the K-6 reforms which have failed so miserably.

      Higher education in the U.S. is being damaged by administrators who are giving in to students’ demands for trigger warnings about microaggressions and letting students get away with protests against free speech. Thanks.

  4. Martha S. Lyon

    It’s curious that other readers have commented about traditional v. modern education with one reader commenting on how the author is able to show the pros of the traditionaI system and the cons of the modern system inasmuch as there is no such distinction in the article.

    In fact, in the U.S., there is no “modern” education. The K-12 public education system has been only two versions of the traditional divided by around the years 1966-1970. The pre-1966 system, despite needing improvement, provided a better education, especially in K-6, than has been provided by the post-1966-1970 system with all its reforms that have failed so miserably.

    What worked so well prior to 1966 is the K-6 curriculum that included play in kindergarten, phonics, sentence diagramming, recess 2X/day, normal arithmetic, multiplication tables, cursive writing, and NO HOMEWORK until 7th grade. Despite studies supporting this curriculum (11 studies proving phonics is the best way to teach reading), reformers replaced most of this curriculum with reforms which have failed miserably.

    The problem with K-12 education now is that, until reformers recognize that the system became inadequate because of those failed reforms, whatever they do to the upper grades will do little to improve the academic performance of students.

    One last point. For what it’s worth, education systems can’t “change the world.” They might have a special or unusual influence on the students, so that when they grow up, they can change the world. People change the world. Environmental issues may change the world, but an education system won’t.

  5. james

    Thank you for this relevant information. Education now a days should address the need of the global market by enhancing the skills of the learners specially their own personal skills where they can become of great value to the society and the world. Schools wanted learners to be globally competitive or become more global but sad to say some school leaders not global thinkers.

Leave a Reply