"Reimagining the Education System" with Tom and Zubair
Education is one of the most powerful tools for change in society. But it cannot serve this purpose unless we change how it is delivered first. The system is failing us, and a complete reimagination of the education system is of utmost necessity. Zubair and Tom have a conversation about how they picture the future of education to look like and the challenges we are threatened by.
Learning goes beyond rote memorization. What we memorize can fetch us marks and might seem beneficial in the short run. But diving in deeper to get accustomed to a new concept requires time and effort. Of course, memorization does not need to be rejected. However, conceptualization needs to be incorporated into our approach, preparing us for University, work, and just the real-world in general.
As Zubair says,
When you get to your university, and I think even further than that when you get to work, you really get tested.
Tom draws in an interesting analogy to put this simply.
Can you get better results by just carrying the buckets of water to your village? Or do you get better results by building the pipeline?
The current system is exhausting and makes so many students hate the idea of education and studying. But we see so many examples of students leading innovation, trying to drive meaningful impact, and work towards what they are passionate about. And this does prove that students do have the zeal for learning and initiative. So, we do have an alternative. But we continue to persist with the demonstrably failed approach of the present. Leading projects add a sense of ownership, and a lot to our skillsets, apart from making us learn strategies for how to learn.
However, we do have a few challenges in terms of project-based learning. For teachers, many of whom are not actively engaging with the subject they are teaching, constructing innovative projects to work on which engages students is not so easy.
We do need to realize that teachers, educators, and administrators are also victims of the same system. They work for long hours with a disproportionate wage and do invest in hours into what they deliver. A complete redesign of the education system, of course, requires better learning strategies taking students into consideration. But it also needs to be better organized and accommodative for teachers. We need an education system that furthers both students and teachers, and thereby the relationship between the two.
Modern societies today do realize the significant power of education done right. But as Tom says, we are yet to figure out what it means to do education right.
