Prepare graduates for a future world
Afterschool
November 25, 2012
- More education doesn't necessarily translate into better skills and better lives, concludes speakers at World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE)
The point argued throughout the summit was that the current education no longer fit what is needed in the future. Andrei Fursenko, assistant to the president of Russia agreed with Schleicher. “Education prepares for yesterday’s economy or maybe today’s economy. But these students are here for the future economy.”Graduates in many countries are not prepared to succeed even after finish their studies. “There is this toxic coexistence: graduates on our street unemployed while at the very same time employers desperately say they cannot find the people with the skills they need,” said Schleicher.
Schleicher pointed to Japan, where 80% of employers could not find the graduates they need despite the high quality education system. Besides that, 1.5 million young people were unemployed in Egypt while 60,000 jobs were open.
“Today, when we can access content on Google and where jobs are changing rapidly, accumulating knowledge matters a lot less and success is much more about ways of thinking, including creativity, critical thinking, and judgement,” he said.
Technology seems to be the new solution for education. However, skeptics rose within the discussion. Rakesh Bharti Mittal, managing director of the India-based Bharti enterprises and co-chair of the Bharti Foundation were one of them.“Technology can’t be a substitute for physical schools. It is interaction, the touch and feel, that is a great learning experience.”
Roberto Carneiro, president of Portugese Catholic University agreed that technology only serves a part of the solution. “I think that education has to be about high-touch as much as high-tech,” he said.
Educational resources on web-based platforms are definitely a positive development, but nothing beats being mentored and having feedback from teachers. Gabriele Zedlmayer (right photo), vice president of sustainability and social innovation at Hewlett-Packard agreed that technology was not the only solution but she argued that it could play a larger role.
“Technology is an enabler, not the solution in and of itself,” she said. “In order to address the university spaces we would have to build a new university every week that could hold 30,000 students. That’s not going to happen.” Pointing out the shortage of university spaces in countries such as Africa, India and China.
Nevertheless, education is heading towards a change. And technology is here to stay.
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