Making our education system dynamic

* Disclaimer : All of this is my opinion, I am open to being wrong. For some context, I am a second year student, studying electrical and electronic engineering. I also know I am making some generalisations, but I am looking at this from a very high level view. *

I wish I could drop out of university.

I have this thought every so often, then I remember I am black and working class (lol).

It’s not that I think the education system is broken, I just think its not compatible with today’s’ society. It was designed to be a static, centralised system of talent and information, which just doesn’t work anymore. It’s outdated.

The problem(s) :

The value of content is tending to zero and becoming more decentralised.

We haven’t actually changed the education system, or the way we are taught since..forever. The main method of teaching is still one teacher lecturing to a class of 100–200 students.The only thing we have introduced are new tools, which actually highlight the redundancy of our teaching methods. For example, in the UK most of our lectures are recorded on podcasts. If I know my lecture is being recorded, and I can watch it at any time at my own pace, then why would I attend my lectures? Taking it a step further, if my syllabus hasn’t changed, what is the point of lecturing when all of this content is already pre-recorded from previous years?

Now, combine this with the rise of Khan academy, Udemy and the likes (even Youtube), and you begin to realise that there is nothing you learn at university, that isn’t online (or going to be online) for free. That’s not to say you don’t need a certain level of supervision to ensure you aren’t understanding things wrong/ picking up bad habits, but with online communities like Quora and co, it’s not that hard to reach out to different people/ experts and participate in peer learning.

Constant skills gap

For the past few years, there has been constant talk of students/young people needing to learn digital skills in order to be better prepared for the new economy. Although I agree, I think this is a solution to a symptom, not the root cause. The root cause being that our education system is static. The way university works, it doesn’t allow for change or any sort of (relatively rapid) movement. When you really think about it, that makes no sense. If our society is dynamic but our education system is static we will always have a skills gap. To take things even further, the rate at which society is changing continues to increase so really it’s inevitable and quite scary. So when the next revolution comes along (because it won’t end with technology), we won’t be ready…again.

We don’t know how to think.

My A level physics teachers used to ask me the weirdest things. They would randomly ask me questions like ‘how many bricks are there in this building’, when I couldn’t respond — talk less of knowing where to start — they explained to me that most students and people don’t know how to think. A few years later, I agree with them (shout out Mr Walker and Mr Patterson). University has become stifling. It doesn’t provide the room or freedom to explore things, to question things and really understand first principles because…exams. We become accustomed to thinking inside a box, and anyone who escapes this box is seen as a ‘genius’, when in reality, they just has a good grasp of first principles, knew how to think and so explored areas people didn’t think to look/ weren’t told to look.

The lack of ability to think isn’t constricted to just University, the same goes for life in general, but that’s a whole different topic for another day maybe.

Exam grades are hackable.

Speaking from my own experience there have been times where I have ‘learnt’ a course in 2–3 days and achieved 80%+ , but I know that if someone were to ask me a question that deviated from our curriculum or challenged anything I was taught, I wouldn’t know how to adequately respond. If exam grades are (this) hackable, then what does my grade actually show? The statement ‘exam grade ≠ intelligence’ comes to mind, although I am aware this is not always the case. Combine this with the pressure that teachers experience to have their students achieve certain grades, what we get is a lot of grade inflation, and no room for ‘failure’. But without room for ‘failure’, you eliminate real learning.

When you combine all of this together, you get the following :

• People saying ‘Yeah I did an MBA, I didn’t learn too much, I just went for the network and using it as a validation stamp’
• Talented people dropping out because University because it isn’t fulfilling its purpose and allowing them to learn and explore
• Companies like Andela proving that education is no longer centralised.
• Constant fear of there being a skills gap

When you take all of this into consideration, the price of higher education just becomes so ridiculous and unjustified. I do not have the answers to all of the problems, but here are some of my thoughts reimagining a more dynamic education system.

Focus on first principles

As content becomes more decentralised, this is probably the most important thing that our education system needs. In order to (constantly) imagine and reimagne what is possible, we must first know and more importantly understand what is/is not possible. Elon musk explains it as “A physics way of looking at the world. You boil things down to the most fundamental truths and then reason up from there. (For example) people may say ‘battery packs are really expensive and that is the way they will always be’. No, that’s pretty dumb. If you apply that reasoning to anything new, you wouldn’t ever be able to get to that new thing.”

If we shift our focus from content to first principles, we also free ourselves to think, which is actually very hard as it also means no more hand holding. However, it will be more rewarding both in terms of learning content and also being prepared for whatever change will inevitably come our way. It means we get rid of the ‘box’ and are free to simply think and explore different possibilities. Everyone becomes a genius.

Focus on learning how to learn

Just as equally important as learning first principles, is our ability to learn, and learn in an efficient manner that has a high output.

The only guaranteed thing in most (if not all) industries, and to a larger extent society is that it will change.Therefore, we must always be learning, it’s the only way to avoid having a dangerously sized skills gap. If we focus on nurturing students ability to learn and making the learning more efficient and personalised, we also end up encouraging and nurturing a growth mindset. With this skill set both students and non students will always be ready for change.

Grade your learning speed

Earlier on, I mentioned learning a course in 2–3 days, getting 80%+ and truthfully not knowing too much (outside of the course). However, even though I think my grade isn’t an honest reflection of my intelligence in that case, it does show that I am a very fast learner (to a certain extent), which I think is even more powerful. The truth is, change is the only guaranteed thing in every industry nowadays. If we could find a way to capture and quantify the speed at which people learn (combined with some content testing of course), it makes for a very powerful indicator. If we admitted students based on their speed of learning, we also open the gates to top institutions to all sorts of students, especially from underprivileged backgrounds. Most, if not all of the fastest learners I know have come from underprivileged backgrounds. Also, from an employers point of view, I would much rather hire someone who has an incredible growth trajectory than someone who comes in at a high level, but is stagnant (not consistent, there if a difference).

(It goes without saying we would also have to capture and quantify the quality of learning too.)

Focus on the network

Institutions like Harvard and Cambridge will always exist (in my lifetime anyways). Even though content is becoming cheaper and more decentralized, I think institutions like this can still have a place. It should be seen as a hub of people who learn at the same pace as you, and more time should be dedicated towards exploring and peer learning from a first principles basis upwards. In other words no more unidirectional lectures, more spaces for bi-directional and peer learning. We no longer need lecture rooms and co, let’s get rid of them (please).

I may be wrong about the ‘how’, but I do feel we need to find some way to make education more dynamic. I have a lot more thoughts on our education system ( I think we need to change the way we teach maths, stop getting people to declare their majors so early (in the UK) ) but for obvious reasons, I can’t. Minerva, is currently trying to take a similar approach, and if they are doing what they say are, then I really hope it works and that other schools will follow.

I am really open to having different conversations, and am actively seeking opinions from students/ ex students and teachers.Feel free to drop me a DM on twitter @adaobiadibe_ or an email adaobiadibe23@gmail.com (but I prefer the former)

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