The Learning Crisis: Why Our Education System Is Failing Students
Solve the World’s Biggest Problems … in ONE Sweep
What if the key to solving many of humanity’s greatest challenges — hunger, poverty, climate change — stemmed from one fundamental area? As ambitious as it sounds, focusing on this one root cause could potentially have widespread impact.
I believe that this crucial element is education.
Education has the power to positively shape our world. With the right learning opportunities, people of all ages and backgrounds can develop new skills and knowledge. This enables individuals to maximize their potential and benefit society.
Quality education gives students the tools to keep learning, innovating, and enhancing their lives long after graduation day. With proper education, people can develop solutions to local and global issues. We can agree that with the right education and opportunities, anyone can become a learned individual who can positively contribute to our society as a whole. However, currently this is not the case.
Why is this not the case?
Let me ask you an interesting question — Why is it that some students succeed and change the world, while others simply blend into the background of society, even if they all went through the same education system? Why is it that some students thrive and realize their full potential through education, while others feel under-supported and struggle to identify their strengths?
I believe that the answer to these questions lies in the system itself. Our current education system focuses heavily on generalization, not specialization.
The 3 Metrics for a Successful System
1. The system needs to allow students to find their passion: I believe that the first and foremost criteria that needs to be met is that students need to find their passion. We must find a way to expose these kids to a wide range of activities, including ones that are not found in school, in order to help these students find what they love doing. This is a very key factor when it comes to future job satisfaction and motivation. I mean let’s be honest, no one wants to be that guy who wakes up every morning just to work at some random place that he hates and is never motivated to do his job because he is only doing it for the check. This would not be the ideal situation. However, if students had the opportunity to find their passion early on, then that could help with future mental happiness and increased work productivity.
2. The system needs to allow for value: I feel the next important thing to touch base on is value. Whatever skill that the student decides to pursue needs to be a valuable skill for society. If the skill isn’t valuable, then there can be no benefit gained from doing that skill. The only way that I can benefit myself is by providing something that is valuable to society, so that I can receive money or another form of equal value in return.
3. The system needs to allow for deep skill-building: This is the last major criterion that needs to be met in order to have a great educational system. Deep skill building essentially involves having the opportunity to gain a high level of expertise in your field. In other words, I need to be either the best or really, REALLY good at what I do so that I become extremely specialized at that one task. This factor simply increases my value further and allows me to be in a better position when it comes to my career and life in general.
With these 3 metrics we can achieve a successful education system. However, this begs the question, why have we not achieved this already?
Back in Time
In order to understand why this is the case, we have to go back to the 1900s. During this time the most widespread form of work in the U.S. was through factory jobs. Manufacturing employment peaked around 1979 with around 19.5 million US factory workers. This factory system needed a massive number of people that had the same ideals and work experience. The factory system required everyone to conform to a certain process, and the educational system reflected this. In order get people ready for these general labor-intensive tasks, the education system needed to provide everyone with the same knowledge, the same opportunities, and the same ideals when it comes to the world.
And this process worked. During this time, people had a simple path set in stone for them. Go study hard, land some factory job, and work until you have to retire. This process depicted the lives of millions of Americans at the time and reflected the lives of people all over the world. With the industrial revolution in full swing at the time, almost every major country was adopting the factory system and the educational model that went along with it. For example, in China, the number of factory workers exploded from 3 million in 1980 to over 150 million by 2010, showing how the factory jobs and industrial educational model worked worldwide.
70 years ago, this “cookie-cutter” educational system was great.
However, times have changed.
The New World: A Digital Age
Due to the uprise of emerging technology, the dot.com revolution, and robotic labor, the majority of these factory jobs are starting to disappear. These jobs are being replaced by automation and globalization. Let’s take a look at the numbers. As of December 2022, there were around 12.3 million manufacturing jobs, which is 36% lower than the number of manufacturing jobs in the 1980s, and this number will just continue to decline as we head into the future.
In the current day and age, specialization is key. If human labor is being replaced, then the people that we need have need to be specialists. Specialization is far more important than the general education that the current education systems provides.
“Our Education System often teaches us how to conform more than how to wonder and venture” — Debasish Mridha
So now this begs the question, how do we solve this issue? What is the best way to achieve specialization in our current system?
I believe that we are now closer than ever in uncovering a solution to that question.
How can we make this Happen?
The best way that we can achieve specialization is by following the 3 metrics: Passion, Value, and Skill.
If I am really skilled at something that I am passionate about and it provides value for society, I have found the perfect job to specialize in.
This is the framework I need to meet in order to fulfill the specialization aspect and actually gain success in my life. The entire educational system needs to be modeled after these 3 things in order to achieve maximum benefit for everyone.
Now how can we actually achieve these 3 parameters? Is there a certain tool or system that we could implement that allows us to push for these 3 ideas and achieve specialization?
Well one incredible solution that can help with this process is Artificial Intelligence. This emerging technology can provide us with the right tools in order to achieve specialization and change the current educational model.
In my next article I will go deeper into the intricacies behind AI and the different technologies that are currently being used to make education better. I will also introduce a few companies that are currently leading the industry with AI in education.
Stay Tuned!
