Human civilisation is technologically and socially progressing at an accelerating rate, and every major change in human history has demanded that humans alter their method of education drastically. For hundreds of thousands of years, Homo sapiens has lived as hunter-gathering communities and tribes - thus education was based on oral communication between families and tribes. Then, at 10,000 BCE, humans began to develop agriculture and permanent settlements, which grew into civilisations - therefore, education for the most part transitioned towards apprenticeships through working for a master craftsman, slave master or being part of a guild, while the first universities existed for higher education for the aristocracy. Then, during the 18th and 19th centuries, the Industrial Revolution began, and the world transitioned from agrarian economies to industrial economies - therefore, education transitioned towards mandatory schooling by specialised teachers, and ranking of academic ability through examinations (the system we have today). However, during the final decades of the 20th century, the information age began, and the world is now economically largely based on a rapidly changing service industry - and we still use the industrial-age system.
The point is, the current education system is outdated and flawed. As qualification for employment is based on exams, which require students to regurgitate a series of facts (which practically everyone forgets after they leave the exam hall) rather than to truly understand their subject, the system promotes incomplete understanding of subjects. Instead of allowing students to pursue their real interests, they are forced through a few state-approved subjects and ranked via exams as "bad products" or "good products" like a production line made to produce workers (who will probably find that the job market no longer demands the skills they were taught). Children's curiosity is incredibly difficult to kill (toddlers tend to ask about everything), however the education system kills curiosity with brutal efficiency - young people nowadays tend to perceive education as a chore. Furthermore, this system is detrimental to students' mental health - rates of student depression and suicide are at an all-time high around the world due to the pressure students are put under to not be ranked as "bad products".
Education does not have to be like this. For example, in Finland there is no standardised testing before the senior year of high school or even homework - and ever since Finland entered the PISA programme in 2008, their students have topped PISA scores ever since, surpassing countries such as China and South Korea which focus heavily on rote learning.
However, the first signs of an Information Age transition are appearing with the rise of online learning applications, educational YouTube videos and online courses on platforms such as Skillshare. IMO the best education system for the information age would be where academic education is taught entirely online, with online educators competing to be unique and to offer high-quality education, while mandatory "social education sessions" where students of similar age groups meet each other and gain social experience exist to prevent loss of social interaction which occurs in industrial-age schooling.
What do you think, NSG?
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