The endeavors of institutions such as schools, colleges, and universities are geared toward theoretical cramming of what is written in books. In our societies, this is referred to as education. This education is most likely the best way to memorize previously discovered, observed, or invented information. And it is most likely not the best way to develop skilled individuals.
Skill is the knowledge and ability to know how to do something practical. The skill enables a person to do anything previously unseen or unprecedented. When examined in depth, the seemingly insignificant difference between education and skill appears to be enormous.
A skill allows someone to generate spontaneity. And such a person is unquestionably a productive citizen of the country. Whereas the majority of degree holders are unskilled and thus unemployed.
No government can employ the entire workforce. Private sectors and private businesses are critical to achieving full employment. And they require skilled individuals, which our educational institutions are unable to produce.
If one pays close attention to the ongoing system of producing cramming machines (people), he will come to the conclusion that it is a waste of time, energy, and opportunities.
If skills are provided, the same people can be prepared as productive resources. To imagine, a student graduating from a university after four years with the knowledge of some definitions, theories, and history of his field is insignificant.
No organization requires a person to know what the given definitions of a thing are, but it does require a person to be an expert in his work, which our educational institutions, or rather the adopted system of teaching a person, are unable to provide.
To look at the other side of the coin, these university graduates who are unable to secure a government job will remain unemployed. Because their learned education is frequently ineffective if they have not developed a skill. As a result, claiming that our educational institutions produce memorizing machines rather than productive people may not be incorrect.
A skill can create demand and find a place in people’s lives without any hindrance. A skilled individual should never be concerned about pursuing a government job. His talent is already a job that he can easily earn.
Overall, practical learning methods may enable institutions to produce competent individuals. Practical learning is defined as doing experiences with the things that a teacher wants his students to learn. Rather than making the student learn the definitions of the things and then considering him competent after theoretically knowing the things. Adopted examination patterns are methods of determining who can memorize how much rather than who knows what.
Many fields have no other practical benefits other than teaching theoretical concepts to students, who then become teachers and teach the next generation the same things, and so on.
‘Librarian Science’ is a good example. It is a university department. I still don’t understand why a Librarian needs to study for four years to be eligible for the position. It’s strange! And what subjects do they read during these four years? Does it take four years to train someone to be a librarian? Because they will have to become librarians at some point. Isn’t that correct?
Following this system may result in the loss of many creative minds. Because the system forces students to rote learn rather than think. As a result, many students do not argue about pre-existing theories. They learn and memorize it exactly as it is and has always been. Because there is a race of marks, no one blinks an eye, even if that can be proven incorrect. The better the grades, the more opportunities. And the better you remember things, the higher your grade. The greater the number of written pages on paper, the higher the grade. It is the prevalent view in the institutions.
There are a variety of other options that, if implemented, will undoubtedly result in a better outcome. Practical learning provides the true path of knowledge rather than theoretical definitions.
By Jahangir Jameel