Schools Are Outdated

Schools Are Outdated. It’s time to Reform 

The Industrial Revolution began in the eighteenth century and means of production changed from hand to machines. Now goods were not handcrafted by individual artisans, but produced in factories with big machines. Person producing those goods is no longer required to know each part of production, they are required to know only a specific part they were supposed to do. This impacted education and place of learning.

It no longer remained an unstructured place run by sages and sheers. Formal schools were established with the objective of creating a workforce for these factories. Consequently, students were trained in memorizing things and doing repetitive work. After school, students were supposed to join college, get a degree and take up a job in these factories. Good or bad, but the whole system was in sync with each other and worked well for everyone.

Now the scenario has changed. Means of production are not the same. The Requirements of the job market are changing at a rapid pace. Some old factories are still there. But with implementation of AI (Artificial Intelligence) all this job will vanish. There will be no need for a workforce who can memorize and do repetitive work. They will be replaced by AI enabled machines which can do this better, faster and cheaper. All the education and degree of this workforce will be of no use.

This will not happen in the distant future. According to most of the estimates this is going to happen in the next 5 to 10 years. This means the students who are in school right now will have to face this. Students who can memorize, calculate fast, or have skills to do repetitive work will not get a job. All these jobs will be done by AI enabled machines. But students have been taught only this in school. Students have worked hard, honed these skills and scored well before coming to the job market.

But these skills have no relevance as means of production have changed. Now the industry requires a different kind of skill set. Some of the policy makers know this. Still there is no major change in the way public schools’ functions. Curriculum and method of teaching is broadly the same as it was in the previous two centuries. Teacher still explains using the backboard. Students’ who can memorize or do repetitive work get better marks.

Despite all these socio-economic changes, school education has remained unchanged. Maybe academia doesn’t want to change. They have their vested interest. But how long will things go along like this? Today a school student can ask any question and get a better reply from the devices at their home. Teachers of Online schools can guide and mentor them. There are APPs which can solve doubts and the quality of this support is much better than the teacher in school. These devices are not accessible to all. But very soon everyone will have this at their home.

Once students start getting required support at home, then why will anyone want to go to school. Place of learning will shift from school to home where they can learn better. As per most of the estimates one-to-one tutoring is the best way of learning. But this is not possible in a public school where there is one teacher and 30 to 50 students. Now technology has made this possible. Students can ask any question and AI enabled devices will explain, solve their doubts according to individual needs.

Schools Are Outdated. Is Online School an Alternative? 

Gradually schools are getting outdated and Online Schools are emerging as an alternative. Students can join Online school where they will get the required guidance, mentorship and certificate at the end of schooling. Unfortunately, most of the online schools have become replicas of public schools where teachers teach as if concepts are given facts and they need to transmit it to students. This is not enough. Students need to discover the concepts on their own in their own individual way. This will not only help them to remember and understand the concept, but also help in the development of “high order thinking” or critical thinking.

This is exactly what happens in Vikalp Online School. Concepts are introduced using learning tools. Teachers don’t explain concepts as given facts. They facilitate learning so that students discover concepts on their own while doing activities. Concepts learned in this way, not only help students to understand and remember, but also apply, analyze, evaluate and create. Latter four are critical thinking which is “higher order thinking” (HOTs) in the hierarchy of skills and abilities of Bloom taxonomy.

Focus of Public school is on memory and understanding which is outlined as the first two “lower-level-thinking” in the hierarchy of skills and abilities of Bloom Taxonomy. Latter four (apply, analyze, evaluate and create) were not considered important. In Vikalp it’s just the opposite. Focus is more on the skills and ability to apply, analyze, evaluate and create. This is so because students studying in our school will be hitting the job market after ten years and that time the job market will be completely different.

Jobs which require skills and ability to understand and remember will not exist. It will be done by machines. Students looking for a job or doing something of their own will require skills and abilities to apply, analyze, evaluate and create. Most of the students of public schools may not have this as these skills and abilities are not honed and developed. And the skills that they have are not relevant anymore. It has been taken over by machines. This makes public schools outdated.

Ten years down the line, only those jobs will remain that cannot be done by machines. This essentially means jobs which require skills and ability to apply, analyze, evaluate and create. And students of Vikalp Online School will be there at the right time with the right kind of skill sets. This is so because throughout their schooling they have learned to discover and construct knowledge. Teachers have not explained concepts as given things. They have discovered on their own.

They have not discovered it as a piece of knowledge but teachers have taught them how to apply, analyze, evaluate and create. This method of learning makes students creative as they learn to create right from the beginning. While creating they have to learn by hit and trail, fail a number of times and solve problems. Once students understand, they are supposed to apply, analyze, evaluate and recreate the concept in the project works. This helps in the development of critical thinking. Students not only learn what to think, but how to think.

These skills and abilities will be very helpful in the future job market. This ability to think will help them to work in an environment where they need to apply, analyze, evaluate and create. Jobs which require memory and understanding will be automated. It will be done by machines. But how to apply something in a different environment, how to break down and simplify things, how to judge whether it should be done and how to mix known things to create something new. All this will still be done by humans. And Vikalp students will have an edge over other students.