“I think there won’t be any school by 2028”.
I was at a startup conference in August, and we were all separated into groups as per our industry of interest.
I was in the education group, and we were attempting to see the future.
Since you probably laughed at that last
line, let me rephrase. We were attempting to do some scenario planning, which is
basically an attempt to predict the future. We mapped out significant events that had
occurred in the field of education for the past 15 years. Then looking at all
these events, we started looking 15 years into the future to try
to predict what it held for us. We talked about focal concerns-the education
bubble, mismatch between skills provided by schools and skills required at the
work place, equal access to education.
According to many of my group mates, the demise of
school as we know it wasn’t too far away in the future. All our focal concerns
for the future of education, all the problems being faced today about skill
development, seemed to point to how dysfunctional our current concept of
‘school’ is.It certainly seemed like an idea not very
sustainable for the future.
There are so many online sources of
learning that the value of school as a source of knowledge will definitely
reduce. So in some ways, the computer has already replaced the teacher.
More than that, we have a lot more knowledge
than we did a 100 years ago. The speed at which we create knowledge increases every decade.There is so much to learn, that soon, it
will be hard to pin down what exactly is the necessary knowledge required to be
taught in school. After kids know how to read, write and add numbers, which way
do you go? You could teach them science, math, the arts, business, or you could
just try teaching them everything. The problem with teaching them everything is
that there just isn’t an end to it.
An interesting perspective that someone
brought up was “Fuel will run out and therefore getting to school will become
impossible. Kids will have to be homeschooled”. Although it may seem too
presumptuous, it’s not impossible.
Between expensive transport costs and
reducing faith in the existing education systems, parents may just decide
that school isn’t worth the 14 years of time and money. Given the kind of
resources widely available through technology, parents may not need to give as
much attention to their kids being homeschooled as they do now. And if the
concept of homeschooling becomes more and more widespread, we may see
communities beginning to get together and teach each other’s children according
to each of theirs skills and expertise. It would be a mini and informal
structure of school, governed highly by choice.
Eventually, I think school might come
down to the basic elementary skills that are absolutely essential. After learning
math, reading and writing, kids should be able to more openly explore, through
games and online courses, subjects of their interest, and discover what their
passion really is. Soft skills that are slowly getting recognized now, such as
the ability to be a good communicator and leader, being a quick learner will be
a part of the schooling experience. Extra curricular activities will be
considered as important as academics, and parents won’t tell their kids to stop
playing basketball and go do their homework.
I imagine that what we know as higher
education today i.e. college, where we develop as human beings and try to
achieve overall development and employable skills will come down to the level
of school. Although we will be able to finish our formal education faster,
learning will be a lifelong journey, since there will be more ways to learn
than to just go to school or college, and all these ways will be affordable and
less time consuming than our existing ones.
And considering how fast our world is
changing, lifelong learning that continues after school and college will become a need. Knowledge will become obsolete so quickly that our
jobs and livelihood will depend on a continuous learning process.
Although school as we know it may not exist
in 2028, I envision our learning to be a lot more accelerated and effective than it is today.
