The educational system

The current educational system is being the target of various criticisms, in many occasions these criticisms may be unfounded, but there are several arguments that make us reflect on whether our educational system is prepared to take on modern times or whether it must undergo a profound updating. The truth is that there is a very strong generational clash between teachers and students. While those who have the obligation to teach have been trained under the same system they apply today, students have grown up in a technological world, in an era where it is very easy to access free and quality education from a telephone.

Based on these premises, we are going to make a brief analysis of this phenomenon and present some general considerations in this regard.

Is the system obsolete?

The current educational system has not changed much in recent decades, although there has been a strong struggle to suppress rote learning, faithfully rooted in the scholastic school, mechanical learning practices are evident in almost any school. The student has a goal, which is to pass a compendium of subjects. To do so, he must pass with good grades, which will then be averaged into a figure that measures how good a student he is.

Just describing the facts highlights the marked competitive nature and the predominant role of grades over knowledge. But somehow we have to measure a student's progress. Do we have a better system?

This is the main problem, that we claim that the current educational system is obsolete (which we do not deny), but what proposals do we have to replace it?

It is true that assigning a number on a scale to a student, based only on a series of theoretical exams, can sound counterproductive. It puts unnecessary pressure on students and makes them realize that the most important thing is grades, grades that are also expressed in separate branches of knowledge, because we fail to integrate subjects, but it seems that each subject is an element totally opposed to the other, and that somehow we have to present a general integrality, that is, to be good at everything, a thought that is naive to say the least.

What is the solution?

Well, we already have the problem. What is the solution?

The solution is another problem. There are few serious projects for a profound educational reform, with time-tested experiments that provide tangible results. The most popular alternatives encourage us to look to the Internet, online courses and ways to organize their students. It is not in vain that today we can learn anything without going to school, because we have never had so much access to information as we do today.

But can we really do without school?

The answer is easy, no. Yes, you can learn anything online, but not everyone can. Think about studying medicine with videos and courses on the Internet, or reading a doctoral thesis without basic knowledge of the subject. Encouraging not attending school is not the solution.

Educational reform is necessary, and more than necessary it is inevitable, but it requires common efforts, it is not enough to launch criticisms without proposing changes, because the truth is that whether we like it or not, the traditional educational system is the only one we have.

The clearest answer seems to be in some of the most socially developed countries, who are encouraged to introduce small changes in a trial and error concept. Perhaps we should join in experimenting more and lose the fear of change, only then can we aspire to have a modern educational system adapted to the new realities.