EDUCATION NEEDS TO GET RELEVANT AND AFFORDABLE TO MAKE DEVELOPING AND UNDERDEVELOPED ECONOMIES GROW

Education even today , if we look at is still very much the same as it was 50 years ago , though the entire world has seen so much of change in every other sphere.

It does not mean that everything that is being taught is be undone but may be the way it is done needs to be re-looked at , making more stress on what is relevant for job skills and innovative and creativity and lesser on repetitive and non useful stuff.

Another thing that can make a difference is Technology which is still to be used extensively is education as it is used in all other sectors specially in schools and colleges.

Also there is a need to reduce the cost of education which has skyrocketed in recent times thanks to a combination of inflation , limited supply of resources vis-à-vis demand and to a large extent profiteering also.

The most important dimensions in Education that needs to be looked at today are

1. Relevance of Education to acquire job related skills

2. Cost of Education to be much lesser so that it becomes available and accessible to all

3. Use of Technology in Education to overcome scarcity of resource so that it can reach every corner of the world.

4. The use of Technology to make Education cheaper

5. Education to be a fundamental right for everyone by assisting the needy by government and private institutions.

6. Students must have a say in the education system 

7.  The teachers need to be more tech savvy 

8. The remuneration for teaching professionals specially in government and public institutions need to go up substantially to attract talent.

If we look at the classrooms today they look nearly identical to those 30 years ago–minus a few upgrades to the modern chalkboard, and sneaking texts in class instead of notes?

“With some exciting exceptions, public schools are one of the few institutions in modern life that have not seen radical changes spurred by technology,” says Joe Williams, executive director of Democrats for Education Reform. “I’m not talking about having computers in classrooms, but rather a lack of any seismic shift in the way things are done because technology is making the work easier or more efficient.”

The Success Of Tech Will Still Rely On Skilled Teachers

We might be sending kids to school in self-driving cars by 2020, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be taught by teacher-avatars and given tests via drone.

“Education needs will drive technology use, rather than the ‘coolness’ of technology trumping education,” predicts Shannon May, cofounder of Bridge International Academies. Instead of simply finding ways to put more tablets in kids’ hands, education technology will find new ways to supplement the best learning possible–regardless of the “coolness” of new tech.

Online’ is not a cure-all for education issues in this country, but it can help provide greater access to new skills training, This is powerful when combined with curricula and programming created and led by practitioner educators. The human factor is always important,

We’ll Think Differently About The Diploma

The growing amount of the population living with crippling student debt combined with the pressure to keep tuition costs down threaten the sustainability of tuition-dependent institutions.This will help to force an innovation drive with an unbundling of degree offerings. 

The sector will see a shift towards more relevant competency-based programs and aggressive competition for students.The education-employment gap will force higher educators to think creatively about how to offer the training students need for a workforce that desperately needs them.

Traditional education is very top-down, heavy-handed–sit down and read, be quiet, don’t ask questions–there’s still a lot of room for innovation.

Today, diplomas granted by years in school are the dominant certification of ‘learning.’ Yet, in almost all cases, these diplomas certify nothing other than the fact that the person in question spent x years in school. Competency-based certifications testing specific skills, and bundling individual skills into professional groupings will become a global currency for both employers and job seekers.

The possibilities offered in technology feed into this shift as well. A new curriculum is going to be created that builds on these possibilities,allowing students to move away from rote learning and tackle real-world challenges and develop solutions for them.

Students Will Have A Voice

Students are ultimately their customers,if they don’t feel respected or listened to, they’ll never buy in to the healthier options her company is dishing out. But it’s not all chocolate cake and gummy worms

Engaging and respecting students and families as wellness partners will become a new focus in ways we haven’t seen before, she says. “Traditional education is very top-down, heavy-handed–sit down and read, be quiet, don’t ask questions–there’s still a lot of room for innovation.”

Educators And Institutions Will Be Forced To Adapt

As the above four factors change–a wider global reach, students who need to feel respected, and a workforce demanding skilled scholars–the roots of education will need to find ways to adapt.

To May, that means paying attention to our condensing, shifting world. By 2100, more than half the world’s population will live in India, China, or Africa.Global policy leadership and sales of education goods and services will be shaped less by issues and needs in the U.S., and more by the issues and needs of Africa, South Asia, and China. Market demand, and pressing policy issues related to urbanization and population growth, will shift the center of gravity of education provision.

Most professions can point to dramatic changes in the way they work, thanks to technological innovations, but teaching still looks and feels an awful lot like it did when today’s teachers were themselves students,

These are the only countries ( 70 of them ) which have spend in all the last five years on Education as a part of their Budget with a small African country Timor-Leste topping the list followed by Denmark and Iceland  and then Malta and Sweden ( the richest economy in Europe ) 

What skills do we teach the next generation so they can keep pace?

If you’d asked farmers a few hundred years ago what skills their kids would need to thrive, it wouldn’t have taken long to answer. They’d need to know how to milk a cow or plant a field. General skills for a single profession that only changed slowly—and this is how it was for most humans through history.

But in the last few centuries? Not so much.

Each generation, and even within generations, we see some jobs largely disappear, while other ones pop up. Machines have automated much of manufacturing, for example, and they’ll automate even more soon. But as manufacturing jobs decline, they’ve been replaced by other once unimaginable professions like bloggers, coders, dog walkers, or pro gamers.

In a world where these labor cycles are accelerating, the question is:

What skills do we teach the next generation so they can keep pace?

More and more research shows that current curriculums, which teach siloed subject matter and specific vocational training, are not preparing students to succeed in the 21st century; a time of technological acceleration, market volatility, and uncertainty.

To address this, some schools have started teaching coding and other skills relevant to the technologies of today. But technology is changing so quickly that these new skills may not be relevant by the time students enter the job market

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In fact, in Cathy Davidson’s book, Now You See It, Davidson estimates that,

“65 percent of children entering grade school this year (2011) will end up working in careers that haven’t even been invented yet.”

Not only is it difficult to predict what careers will exist in the future, it is equally uncertain which technology-based skills will be viable 5 or 10 years from now, as Brett Schilke, director of impact and youth engagement at Singularity University, noted in a recent interview.

So, what do we teach?

Finland recently shifted its national curriculum to a new model called the “phenomenon-based” approach. By 2020, the country will replace traditional classroom subjects with a topical approach highlighting the four Cs—communication, creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration. These four skills “are central to working in teams, and a reflection of the ‘hyper connected’ world we live in today,” Singularity Hub editor-in-chief David Hill recently wrote.

Hill notes the four Cs directly correspond to the skills needed to be a successful 21st century entrepreneur—when accelerating change means the jobs we’re educating for today may not exist tomorrow. Finland’s approach reflects an important transition away from the antiquated model used in most US institutions—a model created for a slower, more stable labor market and economy that no longer exists.

In addition to the four Cs, successful entrepreneurs across the globe are demonstrating three additional soft skills that can be integrated into the classroom—adaptability, resiliency and grit, and a mindset of continuous learning.

These skills can equip students to be problem-solvers, inventive thinkers, and adaptive to the fast-paced change they are bound to encounter. In a world of uncertainty, the only constant is the ability to adapt, pivot, and get back on your feet.

Like Finland, the city of Buenos Aires is embracing change.

Select high school curriculums in the city of Buenos Aires now require technological education in the first two years and entrepreneurship in the last three years. Esteban Bull rich, Buenos Aires’ minister of education, told Singularity University in a recent interview, “I want kids to get out of school and be able to create whatever future they want to create—to be able to change the world with the capabilities they earn and receive through formal schooling.”

The idea is to teach students to be adaptive and equip them with skills that will be highly transferable in whatever reality they may face once out of school, Bull rich explains. Embedding these entrepreneurial skills in education will enable future leaders to move smoothly with the pace of technology. In fact, Mariano Mayer, director of entrepreneurship for the city of Buenos Aires, believes these soft skills will be valued most highly in future labor markets.

This message is consistent with research highlighted in a World Economic Forum and Boston Consulting Group report titled, New Vision for Education: Unlocking the Potential of Technology. The report breaks out the core 21st-century skills into three key categories—foundational literacies, competencies, and character qualities—with lifelong learning as a proficiency encompassing these categories.

From degree gathering to continuous learning

This continuous learning approach, in contrast to degree-oriented education, represents an important shift that is desperately needed in education. It also reflects the demands of the labor market—where lifelong learning and skill development are what keep an individual competitive, agile, and valued.

Singularity University CEO Rob Nail explains, “The current setup does not match the way the world has and will continue to evolve. You get your certificate or degree and then supposedly you’re done. In the world that we’ve living in today, that doesn’t work.”

Transitioning the focus of education from degree-oriented to continuous learning holds obvious benefits for students. This shift in focus, however, will also support academic institutions sustain their value as education, at large, becomes increasingly democratized and decentralized.

Any large change requires we overcome barriers. And in education, there are many—but one challenge, in particular, is fear of change. 

“The fear of change has made us fall behind in terms of advancement in innovation and human activities,” Bull rich says.

“We are discussing upgrades to our car instead of building a spaceship. We need to build a spaceship, but we don’t want to leave the car behind. Some changes appear large, but the truth is, it’s still a car. It doesn’t fly. That’s why education policy is not flying.”

Education and learning are ready to be reinvented. It’s time we get to work