OUR EDUCATION: Which Way Forward?

In a GP class about 12 years ago, I was taught that education should be among the top priorities of any country. Deplorable is the only word that comes to mind when currently considering that sector locally. It was recently reported that students at a local university were circulating a petition requesting the removal of a particular course from the prospectus, as it did not lead to any job prospects. We have to ask ourselves a crucial question here: what are we training our youth to be?  Materialistic hunters if we are to believe this report. However, contrary to many ‘wise’ people, we cannot blame the youth to be so.  
We are still stuck with an archaic system of determining the allocation of secondary schools to poor eleven year olds, who, when the primary cycle is over, look more like war veterans than children on the threshold of adolescence. If we are to go by the statistics published last week in these very columns, then it is clear that the system is failing almost a third of the child population. Instead of focusing on the instruction of children with a view in mind of giving them the basics that they need in life: reading, writing, counting that is suited for them, learning becomes a chore, that is restricted to the school, instead of being applied in the world all around the child.
Secondary school is no better, where the adolescent, who is starting to see the world around with new eyes, is not encouraged to think independently. Instead, he is crammed as well via pre-prepared notes and teachers’ opinions. ‘Thinking outside the box’ and applying reasoning are not very common. These concepts might be encouraged at school by some but when parents are ready to spend thousands to get their child an easy way to pass exams without the effort, why bother?
The sting is felt by those who then go abroad to study, where they are exposed to different ways of studying and people their own age who are encouraged to think independently and who are not afraid to voice disagreements with lecturers. However, the same cannot be said for our local University. Except for those studying languages and literature, others are mostly still stuck in secondary school mode, where they are spoon-fed, as per the words of some fellow alumni and the only aim is to obtain a degree at the end of the day as that is their passport into the adult world.
The youth are not totally blameless, at a certain age, youngsters should try to break free from received ideas and form their own outlook on life. However, when those in charge of revolutionising the education sector to give the best to the country’s future would rather take credit for a couple of successes and discrediting instead of acknowledging efforts by political rivals as well, we have to ask ourselves, what is the way forward in terms of education for our country?