Is It Time For Us To Reimagine Regular Education?

Before we reimagine regular education, let me ask you a question. Have you ever felt that a certain subject was just NOT for you? Almost everyone has at least one of these. For most, it is mathematics. For some, it is language, and for others, it is social sciences. Different subject; same emotion; you get the picture. Let me ask you one more harmless question. Have you ever felt that you put a lot of intense effort into a subject or topic in school, only to never use it again in life? All this probably made you wonder why you had to go through the ordeal in the first place.

At this point, I’d like to jump in and argue that it is time we reimagined regular education. In this article, I’ll start by outlining the challenges we are facing with regular education from today’s systems. Then, I’ll cover some of the solutions that look really promising. And finally, I’ll touch upon what each of us could do so to build an education system that is up to date with our society and technology. The aim is that future school students need not be confronted with the kind of questions I just asked you.

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How Does Regular Education Work?

Let’s start with how traditional school education works. We group children primarily by age into what we call ‘classes’. Then we push them through a pre-determined assembly line like factory model for learning. In this assembly line, one teacher presents information to many students. Some students pick up the knowledge quickly. And some don’t. Most students never gain mastery over the subject. We then require students of all classes to take ‘exams’ where their understanding level is tested. Few students get good grades, and most don’t. Regardless of grading, everybody who passes gets to move on to higher classes, where more advanced concepts are taught. I’m sure you are already beginning to see a lot of things going wrong here. But let me elaborate, for there is more than what meets the eye.

What is Wrong with the Regular Education System?

Firstly, the assembly line learning model did not happen by chance. It was designed specifically during the industrial revolution, with the aim that successful students become productive factory workers. The industrial revolution is long gone. Yet, the educational system is still lingering on. The reason? Large systems are very resistant to big changes. Besides, why change a formula that mostly seems to work? There is essentially nothing wrong with the system. It’s just that it has not been updated to our current technological society yet.

To its credit, our current education system is reasonably good at assessing the knowledge level of students. But the problem is that everybody who passes gets to move on to more advanced classes. Let’s say that Student A gets 60% and Student B gets 92% in a subject. Currently, we consider Student A’s score mediocre and Student B’s score good. Nonetheless, both proceed to higher-level courses. The problem here is that neither of them has mastered the subject. If 100% is considered as subject mastery, Student A has a deficit of 40% and student B has a deficit of 8%. If you think that I’m being picky about 8% here, let me rephrase the problem we are facing.

The Building Problem

Let’s say that we are constructing a building, and the builder has constructed a base which meets 92% of the industry standard. We accept that it is good enough, and proceed with higher levels. The first level is then built, but it meets only 88% of the standard. Moving on, the second level meets only 77%, the third level – only 65%, and with each level the standard drops further. Finally, the lacklustre building starts to shake as soon as there is a minor earthquake in the region. If we had corrected the inadequacies at each level then and there, the problem would not have cascaded. In practice, we never just ignore inadequacies with buildings. But in education, we do! Currently, 60% is still good enough to pass and move on.

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Reimagine Regular Education

We’ve talked enough about problems so far. Let’s talk about solutions. The education system that we currently use fixes the time required to be spent on a subject and also fixes the amount of information that is required to be learned within this time limit. The quantity that is allowed to vary is actually the score from a test (as long as the student passes). What if we changed this a bit?

What if we fix the score required to be 100%, and let the students take their time to achieve that score?

Some students may learn quicker than others, but all in all, subject mastery is the prime requirement.

Thankfully, someone has already done the good work of developing such a system and has implemented it in a pilot project across schools. Below, you can see a graph from Khan Academy, where the above-described system was implemented. In this graph, the vertical axis represents progress in a subject, and the horizontal axis represents time (in days) taken for mastery (100% grading). It is seen that some students progress fast initially. These are the ones that we generally consider bright. On the other hand, so many students are seen taking their time. But once they clear their understanding barrier, they accelerate in their learning. It is important to note that our current education system fails here. Students who are struggling with a topic are not given any extra time. As a result of repeated poor scores in tests, they start believing that the subject is not for them. How many useful strong innovators and late-bloomers are we currently losing by doing this?

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When am I Going to Use This in Real Life?

Do we really need to fix the amount of content that needs to be learned? Should they be categorized as subjects? I ask these questions because real-world problems seldom categorize themselves as subjects. There are all kinds of subjects involved in solving a single practical problem such as road transport, for instance. I am personally working on solutions that are geared towards ‘Problem-oriented learning’. In this space, one asks a question and learns all the cross-subject knowledge necessary to solve that problem. This way, no one needs to wonder why they learned something in school that they never used since. I currently do not have any big results to show in this field, but hopefully, in time, I’ll have something useful to share that solves our challenges here.

What Now?

The data that I presented from Khan Academy was from March 2013 (hence the 480P screenshot). I am writing this article in December 2021. If we have narrowed down the problems with our current education system, and someone else has already started reimagining the education system to the point that they have proven results, what’s stopping us? I’d argue that it all comes down to our awareness and openness to change. If each of us is aware of what is going on and does our little bit in our own ways, it’s more than enough. Micro changes on an individual level have tremendous multiplicative effects on global systems. With the internet to our aid, we can take advantage of accumulated individual contributions that lead to a worldwide education system reformation. With that said, how do you think you can help reimagine our regular education?

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Further reading that might interest you: Is Higher Education A Scam? and Part II: Is Higher Education a Scam?