Nothing is wrong with the Education system, it dawned on me…

So many experts, parents and those who are happy to join the big argument, have insisted that something is wrong with our education system. Yet, the Education system of the 60s – 80s produced some of the great country leaders, thinkers and innovators we know today.

I started thinking about this because I was flying to Jakarta on a day trip for a meeting. On the plane, the view outside [never flown to Indonesia before] was amazing, the many many islands, the low tide revealing the sand around the islands, framing them like the white edge around a polaroid photo.

Then there was the clouds – the many different shapes and formation. I thought of the time when a great teacher in my secondary school [tribute to her though she has left the world] taught us about the names of the various formations. It was so abstract that I could not grasp the descriptions. Sitting in the plane, I thought why in the world was cloud formation important to be taught at that age.

That got me thinking about the curriculum of my time and the ‘aha’ struck me. The  curriculum of yesteryear was to create literacy. The focus was to increase literacy ie knowledge in select number of subjects. Mastery of the subject was not necessary the focus but the ability to demonstrate good grades consistently was the focus. For that purpose, the education system worked!

Now the literacy problem has been largely addressed in most developed and developing nations [at least for the majority of the population]. The focus has shifted to critical thinking instead of good grades from rote memory. Since the focus shifted, that means the ability to demonstrate good grades consistently [by rote memory] has to give way to the ability to reason, communicate and work in teams, solving problems. That is the requirement of the new education system.

So, yes the change is needed but not because the old system failed but because the focus has changed. So, to those who served under the old education system, and those who graduated from that system, we do not have to feel that we came out of a less desirable systems. 

We have done well and therefore we are proof.