The changing role of education

The Oxford dictionary defines education as the "process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university". The definition itself leads to the belief that education is a systematic method and that all humans learn a particular topic in the same manner, and also that this process is limited to a specific place and/or time. The definition also talks about the process and ignores the conversion capability of individuals who are involved in that process.
Education in formal institutions such as a school or a university is failing. It is feared that the majority of the citizens of Bangladesh will not be holistically qualified to compete with the citizens of not only the developed world but also of our neighbours such as India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, who noticeably are coming up quite fast in the global context.
McKinsey, a global consulting firm, has already highlighted this issue in its report titled "Education to Employment", published in 2012 after an extensive study on this topic. The report begins with some facts: an example of which is in Japan, 700,000 young people very rarely leave their homes and have withdrawn from society as most of their "needs" are met by technology. The Japanese even have a term for them: hikikomori! In the USA, there is a reality show by college graduates called "Underemployed", detailing facts about life as a graduate and having to perform dead-end jobs. This is sounding similar chords with many in Bangladesh, who after an MBA from a private university had to take up a position as a personal secretary as they did not possess the right connections and experience to get a "management" position! In Bangladesh, we have noticed that Facebook and cheap mobile technology, including the usage of the mobile Internet, have replaced conventional methods of expression and even hangouts. One might have also observed how many 20-year-olds in Bangladesh have with them video and picture capturing equipment such as DSLR cameras and also perform in music groups.
This is a clear indication that alternative forms of learning and experiencing, at almost every age bracket, is already taking place in this country and others, albeit in an informal manner. The examples above highlight what is already in the report by McKinsey that there are high levels of "conventional" youth unemployment and that there is a shortage of people with critical job skills that ensure entry, survival, performance and motivation in the competitive employment arena. The ILO estimates that this unemployment figure for the 18- to 25-year-olds is about 75 million in the world. If "underemployed" people are included in this figure, then it is likely to increase three times.
The recommendations of the McKinsey report as well as a recent publication by UNESCO are that there should be development of "skills" that match those that are required by the current employment scenario as well as those that are to be required in the future, i.e., a connection between education and employment. Secondly, there should be "job" creation, i.e., creation of employment opportunities which are rewarding and motivating and match those individual "skills" that have been developed over a period of time. There is a particular reason why I've put the words JOB within quotation marks.
This is simply because to many people, a "job" is by definition a dead-end tunnel of earning money and other benefits in kind, from cheap loans to buy a car or apartment, or "meetings" in Thailand, Malaysia and the Middle East, even though in their "hearts" many of them are singers, artists, craftsmen, photographers, teachers even! During my teenage years, I had a passion for learning how to play music and my sister possibly not so much, but I will leave to your good guess as to who my parents chose to send to a music teacher! Not me, of course! Not that it deterred me from learning to play the guitar by lying to my parents as to where I was going every Saturday morning but clearly it was a learning opportunity lost. My journey with the guitar, however, did not last very long as I took up studying Chartered Management Accounting, which became of prime importance to me instead!
Entrepreneurship is also another avenue that is ignored by many when they are studying, as the culture of taking risks is not "taught" in schools or at home, where the ethos is based on "rules" which are meant to be obeyed and followed, rather than matters which should be questioned and understood. In a way, that goes very much against what we are asked when we are toddlers: "So, what would you like to be when you're older Hasan?" and the answer is, "Father! I'd like to be a pilot/singer etc." However, noticeably, many of the current generation have started breaking this boundary and are still stuck in the silo quagmire. A friend of mine while studying business management at a private university, started her own event management firm, and after graduation, her company bloomed into a reputed firm in that industry with state of the art creations for events. Another followed his passion for music and teaching, and is now a reputed music artist and teacher with a massive fan following, even though he has a regular job as a doctor at a hospital. Both followed what seemed "right in their hearts".
At this point we need to ask: is this gulf of difference between education provision and employment practice a new phenomenon, or has it already been there for a long time and has expanded with population and now observed due to its after-effects? There has always been some "bright stars" who have pursued conventional education successfully but then have been outshined by those non-conventional ones. Current examples include the likes of William H Gates III and Mark Zuckerberg. Even a young Albert Einstein had clashed with school authorities stating that "the spirit of learning and creative thought were lost in strict rot learning" and his first job at the Patent Office in Bern, Switzerland was not one he sought as an academic (even though it was through examination of papers at the patent office that he derived his radical conclusions about the nature of light and the fundamental connections of time and space!).
Thus even in the past, the majority has been virtually ignored in favour of an elite minority who are seen to be qualified to lead forward. New technology has, however, rendered such notions invalid, as there exists a body of knowledge present in cyberspace which "enables" an individual of whatever age to obtain information and verify its contents prior to using or practising it, if one takes that first step to connecting to that information. This practice could possibly, in theory, render current conventional education void. In the local context, if we start opening our eyes we will observe that many of these have already been rendered void as "coaching centres" have taken prevalence over schools, colleges and even universities (!), and assignments are "done" by individuals selling their "educational" services over the Internet to students! What an irony!
Do we know what works and what does not in moving our youths to "employment", be it a conventional job or as an entrepreneur? What is measured in terms of education and learning? What parameters are used? Are they effective? Should mainstream education replace on-the-job learning or complement it? Are local and global needs the same or are they different? Should they be different? Are processes scalable irrespective of location and instruction? What is the ultimate objective? The certificate? The pass mark? Or the learning?
Organisations have had a clear impact on the nature of education, and that is not measured directly as they do dictate the usage and practice of that education currently being learned by the youth, in how they are recruited, trained and in how they perform.
Those organisations that perform successfully have some clear traits that they demonstrate: they have a clear mission and vision of where they want to be as a group of people and for each individual and identify their existing and future needs explicitly; they revise and review their processes from the ground up and also check what solutions are already there - there is no need to reinvent the wheel; they have a nurturing and defined risk accepting culture where individuals are motivated to extend their boundaries and "comfort zone"; they have a sharing culture where success or failure is accepted, analysed and fed back into the system for improving future results. And lastly, there is a culture of looking outside the box and breaking that silo mentality. These organisations do not have a human resource department but call their employees "assets" and resourceful humans. Perhaps the field of conventional education could take a leaf out of this book as well as from the book of "gamification", where performance has clear outcomes and rewards.
Perhaps there are more questions than answers at this point and a roadmap does not easily lend itself to a straight one. However, it is a fact that too many young people are getting lost in the process and in the worst case scenario ending up on the wrong side of society. The confusing state of current education in the country recently highlighted in the media is a prime example of what really matters. If educational institutions are themselves confused, then what about the students?
From a global perspective, "Made in Bangladesh" should be a tag that we should be proud of not because it is imprinted on a hanger or a cloth but because we as citizens of Bangladesh have effectively contributed to sustainable global development. Together we can be more than just the sum of the individual parts.

The writer is CIMA (UK) Course Leader for LCBS Dhaka, a professional institution offering degree in ACCA, CIMA and CIM.
hsahmed76@gmail.com