Education system
There are three types of education systems that exist today, the traditional education, the industrial age education, and the Information age education. The traditional education system have existed for thousand years focuses on basic knowledge of an agriculture society where “rote memorization” is important and success is based on passing examinations. After graduated, most students will work as administrations for government (The emperor). This system is now considered obsolete by most educators. The industry age education system have existed for about three hundreds years focuses on meeting the needs of the industry where students learn “mass production processes” to produce certain manufactured products. In this system, students learned everything they needed to know in school, and education usually ended at graduation. Success is based on getting jobs in the manufacturing industry. This system is becoming obsolete soon as it no longer equates to success in today business. The Information education system is relatively new focuses mostly on technical knowledge and the application of technology to solve business problems. Students learn the fundamental in schools however education do not end there but continue throughout their life as technology always changes. Success is based on the knowledge and skills that individual obtain in actual working life and adjust to every situation that he meets. In this system, innovation and individual creativity are valued greatly.
Students educated by the traditional education do NOT feel comfortable with the industrial age education system because the academia's view and industry's view differs greatly. Students graduated with good grades by “memorization” may NOT be able to apply what they learned into a manufacturing production system therefore may NOT be successful in their jobs. This situation has happened in China, India and many Asian countries that still follow the traditional education system. Students educated by the industrial-age education system and then thrown into the information age will have to adjust by additional trainings. There is a huge gap exists between the industrial age education and what people need to know to stay competitive in the information age, and that gap is widening. This situation is happening in Europe and America as change is still take place with their education systems.
Current management structure is a product of the industrial age. Standardization and control are the ideals of industrial society. Responsibility rests with managers who made decisions and workers are trained to follow orders. Training was limited to specific job skills for their positions. That ideas work well in the industrial age, where industrial countries control the market places but it falls apart in a “globalized world” when every country can compete in the marketplace. In the information age, changes happen quickly and survival demands continually improving products, services, and ability to respond quickly. The idea that workers are supposed to only have skills to do what they need does NOT work anymore. Technologies are changing faster than people's ability to master, or even understand them, unless they are always learning new things.
Let's look at the growth of the software industry in India. In 1985, India exported $24 million worth of software. In the year 2000, they exported $350 million but by 2008, they exported $85 billion and this year, despite the financial crisis India estimates that software export could net $100 billion by year end. Recognizing the export potential of this industry and its “archaic colonial” education system slow to change, most India's largest software companies have invested heavily in their own education programs to keep their people up to date with developing technology. Large Indian companies spend as much as 8 percent of their annual revenues on training, more than any companies in the US or Europe. The Wall Street Journal reported that Japanese and European companies spend 4 percent of their operating budget on employee education, while U.S. firms spend only about 2 percent. The simple reason is India understands the important of knowledge and skills in this 21st century when other countries are still debating on how to improve their education systems.
As an educator, I believe that it is the responsibility of the individual to learn because we no longer live in an age where education can stop when we graduate from college. The current changes in technology are both exciting and frightening. It is possible for a developing country to catch up quickly with developed countries by grasping this opportunity and it is our choice. I believe the most successful people in the next 10 years may not be the smartest students or the students who have the highest grades. The knowledge they know now will be obsolete by then. Success in this information age will be defined by the ability to continue learning. Technology will change so quickly and the only survivors will be the lifelong learners. That is why I always urge my students to keep learning as much as they can. In the world in which change is the constant, the critical skills we need are the ability to think, to analyze, and to learn. These may not be the skills we have been taught in our school today but the skills that we must acquire because the lifelong learners are becoming the most valuable people in this competitive world.
A lifelong learner always reads. Today, they do NOT read just books but also articles in the internet. I often ask my student how many articles that they read per week. How many articles that they read per month? What were the last books that they read that related in to their professional growth? Lifelong learners do NOT stop learning when they graduate from school but continue to improve their skills by taking additional trainings. Even it is the responsibility of the individual to learn, individual learning alone cannot help improve a society. To be competitive as a society, we must advocate learning by encourage more readings, more trainings, more coverage of technical knowledge and more opportunity for learning. A society that does NOT value learning cannot improve. Our success, our survival in this rapidly changing world, will depend upon our ability to respond to change. To do that, we must be able to learn and continue learning.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
