As our societies evolve, so do our educational systems.
The rapid process of development that continues to take place, alongside the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the past year, has opened up the possibility for real and radical change.
Education is a trillion dollar industry
An industry that is still quickly growing due to the huge growth in its demand, there are more young individuals that need to be educated and the accessibility of education itself is also growing. Education during various crises became a priority and hence, as education has become more accessible, enrolment has soared. This is occurring due to governments making education free and countries where it's also illegal not to enrol your child in education,
This image below illustrates the projected world population by level of education made by the International institute for Applied Systems Analysis:
Tertiary education refers to the education that is provided for individuals above age of schooling.
It is also becoming a seemingly popular pathway that many individuals take due to a potential
change in interests, or if individuals who lacked education previously wished to use new opportunities to attend school and obtain an education. Over the past few decades the numbers shown below have dramatically increased by around 175 million from 1970 to 2014. This illustrates a variety of different ideas, ranging from how the importance of education has risen and hence the understanding that education is the key to every individual's cognitive development. This consequently prompts individuals to further develop their knowledge through tertiary education.
Education must adapt to the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution refers to the fusion of advancements in various areas, but most importantly, in technology. Examples include artificial intelligence, algorithms and engineering. Technology is transforming how we live, work, play and think. And it’s happening more quickly, and on a larger scale, than at any point in human history.
Education needs to equip today’s young people with the skills to thrive in tomorrow’s world, even if we don’t know what it looks like yet. However we do know that the young individuals would be the ones shaping the demand from education based on their personal preferences that will be taken into account. These individuals will think differently due to the environment they grew up in. As a result of this, the formation of new altered systems, that are more fitted and relevant, will be a visible aspect of change in the future.
After a year that involved a global pandemic which has thrown communities into mass school closures, disruptions occurring within communities, followed by large shifts in our political world as a whole, the role of education and its place in society has never been more important or rather more uncertain. After the pandemic passes, what will education look like amidst the “new reality”? What should it work towards?
The dominant idea that is underlined through this article is that the educational system is approaching a serious revolution because the old model of education will soon not be fitting.
After COVID-19, some professions leave, while new ones will arise.
The idea of a new reality is seen everywhere.
What is the educational system and what is meant by changes in it?
Education is a system that prepares specialised individuals.
Let’s create a theoretical situation in order to extrapolate the key ideas that enable us to understand the change that potentially awaits for the educational systems.
The abrupt appearance of new jobs and qualifications cannot be so easily sustained by institutions, and hence, with an increase in job opportunities, students will not be correctly prepared for them unless these institutions do not alter their faculties and curriculums, which will enable students to successfully adapt to the so called ‘new reality’.
We also have the idea that before, teachers only taught in class, while now, they are faced with a challenge of how to combine social and online education, something that was especially pushed through the COVID-19 pandemic. In many places teachers are unable to teach kids to learn online; this can occur in poorer countries where individuals suffer from a digital divide. This is also the case for developed countries where online education does not meet the high standards of social education hence causing setbacks and further problems in a students educational journey, again the idea of this preventing them from being fully prepared for the ‘new reality’ arises.
The narrowing of goals set by students is another change that is present. Students obtain a single goal in mind where they are aiming to participate in a certain job. Instead of going to a well known college for its status, they potentially will go for a singular professor that can help them be the best in their qualification. In other words more for knowledge rather than the application resume. Hence possibly causing some universities to lose their relevance. A good example would be if an individual wants to study history and be a historian - they will look for a professor such as Yuval Noah Harari who teaches in Jerusalem.
Why is this adaptation and alteration of educational systems absolutely crucial ?
Taking the rapid development of robots and machinery that take over human labour, this adaptation would be targeted towards finding a way for individuals not to lose their job. Alongside this a shift in the job requirements will definitely occur.
Let's take political scientists as an example. The idea of political scientists now will completely differ from the idea of political scientists in, let's say, 25 years. These jobs will now involve a combination of cognitive thinking and the understanding of technological developments and how to incorporate them. Social media and the internet in general obtain a greater control over people’s preferences more and more as the years go by, hence affecting all other aspects of their life for example politics, hence political scientists need to be aware of this, they need to understand the logic behind all these schemes. Consequently, institutions like Brown and for example Yale would need to update and amend their faculty that will combine these two skills.
This is definitely a time of challenge.
The situation reminds us of one where no one fully knows what paths to take to achieve a perfect education. The need to strengthen education systems was recognised and hence, the alterations that will occur within these systems will be made more prominent in the future ahead of us.
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