Redefining education

Status quo education process is a leading indicator for the state of society in the future. Over the last century, education has been largely defined as the process of learning existing information. In many developing countries, the ability to regurgitate information and rote learning have been considered important capabilities. Accordingly, most of the materials and testing are designed around memorization. In certain developed countries, education took a turn in the 70s, when experimentation took over theorization. It has been more important to "see," what happens in the lab rather than imagining what could happen. These systems have churned out scientists, who have built large machines and labs to test the heck out of everything, in an attempt to find new things. Unfortunately, not many new insights have come from such routine experimentation.

Both systems – rote memorization of theoretical concepts and the free experimentation with little respect for theory – have brought education systems across the world to a standstill. They are imparting irrelevant skills in the next generation – some pay for it and others do not – but in both cases, they are wasting valuable time. The world has changed – it has no need for those who can memorize things without a fundamental understanding or for those who need experiments to understand how gravity works.

We are at the threshold of a major leap in which imagination and creativity hold a higher premium. There are no jobs waiting in the future for those able to memorize information (computers do that well) nor for those who require experiments to prove what have already been proven. Unless education systems around the world wake up to the new reality, a 10% unemployment could be an aspirational target in the future.