The Future of Education

Over the course of me educational journey, I have been particularly lucky to have quite a few of extraordinary, inspiring, motivating and compassionate teachers to guide me and pique my interest in learning; teachers who were quite frankly ahead of their time and willing to break away from the norm and go an extra mile so that their students learn.  The best teacher who comes to my mind was Mrs. Abida Rana. She was my 5th grade class teacher and taught Urdu and Social Studies. Adamantly, Urdu language course by far the drabbest and dreary subject we had all day. The course was generally not the favorite one to teach for the instructors either as it offered little room for imagination and creativity (though there was already very little of it in the rest of the subjects any way).  I remember day one, which happened to be our first day of using fountain pens as well, our teacher asked us to submit one pen each so that it's nib could be laser cut into a ...

The idea of learning, of deliberate practice and of learned intelligence centers on the premise, that we can make learn a lot better, a lot quicker if we are able to make sense of the world around us. We need to know the game, see the patterns, store the necessary information and we can become better at learning anything. If we know why and how, what we learn fits into the bigger picture, we will be inclined to own the process of learning as we can envision the end goals better, observe the progress and know exactly where we want to be in the future.  Why Learn? Coming from a traditional education system that mainly relied on by-rote learning methodologies and valued word-for-word reproduction of concepts, I was lucky to have been blessed with a photographic memory. Being the top of the class through out my academic journey got me labeled as the more intelligent of my contemporaries and classmates, which was assessed year after year by examinations required more of rote le...

We need to be able to differentiate between the fad ideas that give the illusion of progress, and the real learning theories that matter; not just in schools but as a way of life because learning doesn't start when you enter a school only, and it most definitely does not and should not stop once the student steps out of the school boundaries.  Current Outlook The current traditional classrooms are highly dependent on the "Monological" approach to teaching and learning, where the teacher is the final and the only authority the classroom. These traditional methods require the teachers to cram their students with as many concepts as possible in a very short and limited time period, as mandated by the popular mainstream curricula guidelines. The system is authoritarian, stagnant and non-interactive. The didactic approach to teaching needs to be replaced. I hope that the future of the education holds a more promising approach to learning where the students and the tutor...

Over the years, I have experienced the traditional educational systems, as are the norm in the developing world and now 30 plus years later as I look back, it is shocking and disappointing how little we have progressed from the selective educational methods with a single minded objective of passing the standardized tests and exams.  I have had a fairly successful and decorated academic journey as a student. Starting from Grade 1, I was always top of the class and sort of ending it on a high note as I finished my MBA with distinction and securing one of the top 3 spots in the batch. One would assume that such a journey must mean a thrilling ride with the academic successes leading to high-self esteem and feeling of accomplishment. Yet, I feel that the entire focus of my education has been to get good grades instead of internalizing the learning and applying the acquired knowledge in a meaningful way to make any difference. My criticism of the current system stems from my own edu...