Why The Education System is Failing Us (RANT)
The education system as it stands is failing us and I will uncover some underlying truths behind why so many young people feel left unprepared and lost in today’s world
So, growing up I was a very curious kid… always asking questions as to why things in the world were the way they were, especially with the standardised education system every single one of us were put through
But the more I went through the system and the more questions I asked, there were a lot of aspects about the education system which personally didn’t make much logical sense to me
And don’t get me wrong, I know how fortunate I am to be in this position… to live in a country where I had the opportunity to receive an education, but I think these points are still worth addressing since we are, in some ways, entering into another industrial revolution with the advent of AI and everything and I strongly believe that the current system has a lot of cracks in it
And the thing was, you could say I was one of those decently academic, smart Asian kids growing up… but I also had a bit of ADHD tendencies where I would have a bit of trouble focusing so what I would do was I would almost gaslight myself into actually doing the work because tbh I was personally never really intrinsically motivated to do the work and frequently zone out
I would remember telling myself “If I don’t do this work now, then I’m not going to be able to get a job to survive and I’m going to be a failure in life…”
And of course in hindsight this was a sign of low self-esteem but it was the honestly the only way I could motivate myself to actually doing the work
And I developed a mindset which worked really well in my GCSEs and A-Levels…a concept I’m sure every person watching this has done some point in education which is the ‘cram and forget’ method
It’s pretty self-explanatory by the name, but essentially, it’s a way for a student to cram and memorise as much information as humanly possible for the test only to forget it a day after the exam
This causes students to be reliant on being ordered what they need to do and learn to pass a particular exam to get good grades RATHER than being an independent thinker and genuine learner
And I’m sure you can agree that school is far more than a cluster of information transferred from various books to a student’s brain…
But instead an opportunity for learning, discovering and having the ability to socialise with other individuals who are at a similar age because it probably one of the only environments where you can meet with other individuals who are the same age
The Monopolisation of Youth Socialisation
This makes it so that colleges and universities nowadays have monopolised youth socialisation, as if you decided to say go into an apprenticeship scheme instead of university, all you’re going to see are people in their 30s, 40s and 50s with MAYBE a handful of those in their early 20s and it may be harder to connect with these people since they’re simply at a different stage of their life with kids and everything
I am mean tbh, university is THE ONLY PLACE where you can get a free pass for getting absolute pissed beyond belief and take questionable substances and still come out the other end being congratulated for ‘getting through uni’ — Unis like the easiest lifestyle
Since at university, if you do these activities, people will call you having a ‘vibrant social life’, but try do the same thing in the real world, people will start saying ‘when are you going to sort your life out?’ — it’s just different rules and don’t get me wrong I’m all for pro-choice and doing whatever you want BUT you can deny that this this sort of culture Universities breeds a lazier mindset which doesn’t really prepare you for real life
Because what universities used to be where places to bring the brightest minds together to further the research and development in a given topic
And of course, back in the day they had an inequality issue of not letting in a certain gender or race BUT I feel like universities have become more of the social norm where it is a place where you go moreso for the experience than the degree (which ties into the whole youth monopolisation thing I was talking about earlier)
Feeling Lost and Age Fear-mongering
And if you’re like me, maybe you are currently in your 20s or even 30s (actually tbh this ain’t even an age thing lol) you will quickly realise how difficult it is to actually get a job nowadays once you’re out of university
And this is especially true if you are a fresh graduate or looking for an entry-role… AND EVEN if you are currently in a job, the possibility of getting laid off has become a lot more common
And it’s not even necessarily trying to get A job but THE job where not only are you earning a decent level of income but also where your talents are being used in the right fields
But unfortunately, most people end up feeling extremely lost in life and many young people, once they are out of uni, they go travelling and end up doing drugs in Thailand to “find themselves” lol
Essentially pushing the burden of being a responsible adult and entering into workforce because truth be told, it is a socially acceptable thing to do
And tbh I don’t blame them because life has gotten way harder, but you may also agree with me that you would expect a young person who has gone through a decade or so of the education system to have done a respectable amount of the whole “trying to figure to life thing”, you know?
And authoritative figures put this pressure on you to make a life decision as early as 16 or 18 on which job sector you want to go into… and as a guy for instance mind you your pre-frontal cortex (which is the logical part of your brain) isn’t even fully developed until the age of 25
And it doesn’t really help the fact that there is an emphasis on every incremental age jump as each year passes, like uuuuhhh I’m 14 I’m doing my GCSEs, 16 I need to choose my A-levels, I’m 18 I’m going to Uni!
But as soon as you’re in your 20s for instance the ages don’t really matter as much as everyone is basically on their own journey
So now the question I am going to bring forward, as stupid as this question is, which is:
What was the purpose of the education system in the first place?
Because from what I’ve described, it clearly isn’t really got to do with the student as an individual trying to discover what their skills, talents and true purpose in life is — otherwise we wouldn’t have this cattle of young people trying to “find themselves”
This is actually a ‘leftist’ approach to education, which is similar to how it is being executed in Finland where for instance, the education is a lot more child-centred and the teachers act more as facilitators for the child’s own discovery as supposed to being authoritative figures
This is a complete contrast to what we see here in the UK for example, there are parents here stressing out on which primary school they should send their children to so that they could send them to Oxbridge — Asian parents I’m looking at you lol
And some would say this is a more of a utilitarian approach to education which focuses on shaping children into capable, productive workers who would fit the labour market
But the caveat of this utilitarian approach, which was in hindsight the type of thinking and conclusion I came to is why students were doing all of this studying in the first place
Because as a kid, if you comprehended that education was primarily supposed to teach you useful things for real life, then you would naturally start to question where all of those quadratic formulas to the essay analysis stuff you have written about Romeo and Juliet comes to play
And of course, the response you would get would be ‘you need to pass these exams so you can get a job’ — which is kind of a depressing way to think about studying actually
Because let me put it like this right, why is there basically little to no education on… Health for example
I mean the most that was taught was… I mean it’s not necessarily taught but they show you the health pyramid and tell you to eat an apple a day to keep he doctor away and… that’s it!
There is no mention about the importance of getting your micronutrients like Vitamin A,B,C (basically half the alphabet lol) when we know as a fact that most people are vitamin deficient
Because most people’s diet consists of processed meals that can be quickly heated in the microwave, many rely on energy drinks to stay awake and get through assignment, as well as taking frequent hits of the vape to give people that temporary high throughout the day
This is the reason why a lot of people struggle to maintain their Health and Fitness as they go through their 20s, 30s and 40s… the foundation for knowledge about health and fitness isn’t really there unless you yourself go out of your way in your own time to self-teach yourself these things… and we can’t forget to mention the pathetic one hour of PE you’re made to do every week… one hour lol!
And what about the lack of knowledge on basic financial literacy? Like most of us were never really taught about taxes or how to manage our finances given the current financial economic climate, with the rise in living costs and everything
And probably one of the most important and relevant of all being, how to combat the mental health issues and how students can feel happy without feeling that sense of depression and anxiety like most students feel when every exam feels like life or death, which reminds me…
The Impact of the Pandemic
I was one of the many A-Level students who kind of got screwed by the thing that happened in 2020, where I wasn’t able to sit my exams
And I ended up receiving my A-Level results during August I believe by the government, which were based on an algorithm which was designed to emulate the predictions that teachers would give
From the top of my head, I’m pretty sure there was a stat going around on the news where 40% of A level grades were downgraded as a result, where a lot of students (including myself) missed out on the universities of our choice…
I mean after this, after the backlash the government allowed the use of centre-assessed grades, which basically took the teachers’ predictions into account — but it was already too late by then
And to be honest, I’m not particularly salty or anything (it was around 5 years ago) but the way the government executed on this particular situation was pretty poor imo and I do believe things could have ran a lot smoother
Of course, this is like a once in a lifetime matter, but there are also some things in the education system which I’ve mentioned throughout this story that could be changed TODAY — and this is what I want to outline now IF I had the opportunity, say in the government, to change things
What The Education System Should Change
Schools, Colleges and Universities should be facilities which should consolidate students with a solid base — a foundation of knowledge, understanding and a growth mindset which will help them succeed in life before and after they leave the education system
And to go into more detail with this, the content which is being taught should allow students to have ‘learning flexibility’
And what I mean by that is instead of teaching students knowledge solely for exams, which are essentially arbitrary obstacles you have to jump over, student should be taught the RELEVANT knowledge, skills, abilities AS WELL AS the ability to learn material independently to prepare the coming cohort of students for the unpredictability of life — since we’re also living a lot longer than previous generations and once you’re past 18 (or sometime around your 20s)… you’re off!!!
Until about 80 years old — so that’s around 50 to 60 years after the education system of you being fully conscious and being independent in figuring your own life… vs. the first 16 years of your life where you were basically being told what to do
And to facilitate this, the higher ups should take full advantage of this unpredictable nature of life say… the introduction of AI and how certain procedures in the education system such as: automating exam papers which are hand-marked by teacher with AI, SO THAT teachers can focus on the ‘learning flexibility’ aspect of teaching to students
Another thing is, the education system should utilise the neuroscientific research done on how our brain works… this way certain structures can be put into place based on the optimal way material should be taught
Because to go into a bit more detail on how our brains work is it is like an almost intellectual assembly, where new information is integrated and built on
It’s just easier to come up with creative piece of writing when you aren’t boggled down about making spelling and grammar errors….
Same thing could be said in doing math exam questions when you find it difficult to perform basic addition, subtraction and multiplication in your head
Because the way the current system is atm is that it rewards students with excellent memories and punishes those who struggle to grasp the basics, which naturally causes a sort of inequality which is harder to fix as students get older
And also think about this right, apart from the change from blackboards to whiteboards, the style in which students have been taught for 100s of year (being one teacher proclaiming out the course material to 30 students in a class) hasn’t really change — which is a way of teaching which doesn’t provide individualised support for those students who are not quite catching it the first time
I would also say it is crucial to create an environment where students love going to school, understand the true value of education and having the curiosity and intrinsic motivation to learn…
INSTEAD of student being lead by fear and having some external entity telling them what to do and gaslighting them by implying they will not amount to anything if they underperform in an exam
