Why education need to be disrupted?

Why should we disrupt the present education system?  Because it is unfit for the world of today. It  is archaic. It was designed for old ways of doing things. It was designed for a different culture. It was created for different type of economy. Today it creates more problems than it solves. Because Netocracy has changed the way we live. We are free now and we want more. 

1. ) We need to disrupt the notion that learning need not be fun, it has to be rigorous with a lot of stupid homework.

2.) We need to disrupt the notion that a curriculum is everything and a teacher knows everything. 

3.) We need to disrupt the notion that an examination is the way to measure knowledge and marks are the best measure.

4.)  We need to disrupt the notion that learning need to happen within the brick walls of a college or university. 

Everywhere in the world new models and products are coming out that will make the present education system obsolete. 

1.) Udemy : Created by a Stanford professor this offers several courses online and thousands of students are enrolled with it.    There are no enrollment forms to fill out, no financial aid forms to fill out, no lines to wait in, no advisors to see, no signatures to obtain for permission to enroll in courses, no prerequisite to fulfill to enroll in courses.  The time lag between wanting to enroll and starting is quite short.  You can sign up with your Facebook account or you can sign up with e-mail, browse the courses, and enroll.   

2.) Mozilla's Open Badges project : Mozilla's Open Badges project will make it easy for anyone to issue, earn and display badges across the web -- through a shared infrastructure that's free and open to all.  This will create same credibility that degrees create today.

3.) canXpek : Education need to be personalized. Everybody learns in their own way. We need to replace mass education methods with personalized education. Motivated learning will replace brute methods. Career advisers will guide the candidate in his learning and learning happens in a pace in which the candidate feels comfortable.   

Indian education is creating nothing but slaves.

This happened long back when I was working as a scientist in one of India's most prestigious organization. Well,  here is the story.

My colleague is on leave. His son's term examination is tomorrow.  Yesterday when we met he looked very worried.

Looks worried!  Anything wrong?

"Hey tomorrow is my son's term examination. He should  be scoring good marks"

Why am I am not worried I thought, my son is also studying in the same class. There may be something wrong with me. Did I ever looked at his marks? Probably I am one of that irresponsible fathers.

" I will be on leave tomorrow, if something comes up please take care for me".

Sure, but you said you were taking him for tutions. Does that not help? I do not want to do his work, so I am trying to persuade him to come to office tomorrow.

" Well, Yes I am taking him to tutions everyday at 4AM. There is tution in the evening too. But you know we need to be very careful at this age"

What am I doing?  When was the last time I woke up at 4AM. Oh,, yes a few days back when I heard a noise from my son's room. I went there to look and found that it was  only cat. My son was still sound asleep, did he ever woke up at 4AM?

Half of the office is on leave today. I am happy to see a few of my colleagues at their table.

"Hey why are you here? When is your son's examination?"

How the hell I know that? Did we ever discussed about examination at home? Whenever he is with me he would like to hear a story or he will have a few questions about a few things that he had learned from his friends. Did he ever discussed anything about his studies?

Now I am worried. Am I not a good parent? Do I understand parenting and its duties? What I do is to have fun with my children.When will the children have any fun otherwise?  The school in which my children are studying looks to be very strict. Does not look like they have any fun at school.  My children spends a lot of time in watching TV and spends a lot of time on computer. That is wrong too. Am I failed parent?

 This is past now, the worries are a thing past now. My children has found their way in the maze of life.

Recently I had a hot discussion with somebody about having no innovations in our society. He says

"There is no real R&D happening in our country. They are just copying this from others"

No wonder. Is this not what we taught them? They copied everything from their tuition masters. They did a lot of mugging up to score high marks.  How can they be different now?  We have not told them to think and select their own ways. We took them to tutions, we told them when to get up and when to sleep, we selected what they have to study and we also selected their life partners.
Perfect it s not?

Interviews.. Interviews.... Never ending interviews

I usually get one or two requests every week from relatives of fresh graduates asking a job for them. Some requests are strange and some are stupid.

" My son got a job in Dubai, but they are asking for experience, can you please allow him to be trainee in your office? You do not have to pay him anything, he will be flying to Dubai in six months"

"His ambition is to become a lawyer, but he wants to make some money before he can pursue that. That is why he wants to work in IT"

"I told him that IT is a stupid job, just sitting in front of a computer and typing. I wanted him take EC, you know electronics is a wonderful career, but he will not listen. No..no.. He has finally taken Mechanical.. Please give him a job in your office"

"I want to get my daughter married off.. Just for few months, she will resign after the date is fixed"

I am always ready to meet new people, so I usually ask them to come and meet me. You will never know, sometimes you may be going to meet a genius though they all looks like misguided at the moment.

This was such a moment. Am I going to meet next Einstein? Did Einstein go for B. tech? He would have to if he was born in India.

"I have been looking for a job for the last one year" the next Einstein told me.

" Everybody including my career advisers told me to take Electronics and Communications since it has the highest job prospect" . I am listening, go on..

" I had got admission to IT in a Govt. college with no fees, but I choose to study EC in a self financing college". Good advisers.

" My father is in debt now since I have to pay my fees. Why you people are not employing me?" His life is in ruins and I am responsible for that.

"All those stupid fellows who went for IT got placed. I have got more marks than all of them".

My dear fellow what I can do with your marks.

Do you know any languages? I mean like C, C++?

" Yes, yes, they taught us C".

What academic project have done in C?

"My tuition sir told me that there is somebody who can prepare excellent C project. So I paid for it. Do you want to see my project report? I got full marks for this report. I admire that person who has done it for me. His fees are little high, but his work is very good. I have recommended him for my juniors."

"By the by he also prepared my Resume sir, please take a look at it. I also attended a course on how to face an interview. They will prepare us for all possible scenarios of an interview like this. So sir I come fully prepared sir, I am confident that I can pas any Interview " That is true he is even wearing a tie.

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Am I against education?

What is wrong with today's college education. We have great colleges, universities and Professors. We  have made huge investments in college education. We also have huge population that believes in the glory of college degrees.  

Well, I am not happy with the results. Why are we treating all subjects and profession the same way ? Why are we using the same model for every subject? Is it because of simplicity? For me it looks like nobody had really put any thought into it.  Or is it mediocrity? 

Today 's education is best suited for a subject like English literature. Classes by good professors may sound like "poetry". But the tragedy is that we treat Computer science same way, use the same model. I agree that some lab hours were added as an after thought. But what is needed is a new model from the ground up.  If we do not do that we are looking at a huge failure.

It is time that we do something about it.   We support the new approaches worldwide  in gaining knowledge and skills. Using canXpek.com you can talk to industry expert and get their advice about planning your career.  Using canXpek.com companies will reach you with a job offer. More over it is free now since the product is in beta testing. Please visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/CanXpek to know more about it.