Primary and Secondary education should focus on training students for highly specialized jobs of the future
Primary and Secondary education should focus on training students for highly specialized jobs of the future , rather than providing them with a broad range of non-specific skills and information
The issue presented above is a highly volatile and a deeply contentious statement. As such job oriented training is a highly contentious subject but when you combine the issue of primary and secondary education the subject assumes enormous proportions. Even though early exposure to job oriented training has its own set of advantages I would contend that primary and secondary education of a child should provide him with a broad range of skills.
Firstly the idea of predicting "jobs of future" is somewhere between dream and wishful thinking. The time line between primary school education and joining the job market is a good decade and a half. In today's world where yesterday's technological innovations are obsolete even before tomorrow happens predicting a scenario 15 years hence is just preposterous. Essentially we might end up preparing a child for a job that would hit its peak when the child reached high school and tapers down by the time he graduates. Take the example of medical transcription. At one point in time near of the turn of century it was a hot job sector in India with the spate of offshore contracting happening in that sector was booming. But a few years down the line it’s faded in glory. A child equipped with skills specific to that industry would be unable to sustain himself and with limited other skills switching industries at a mature age is simply not possible.
Secondly a career should always be by choice and never by chance. At the end of the day the job should be treated as a vocation rather than a profession. Only if one derives the joy from the work would the long term sustainability and ultimately job satisfaction some easily else the job would just remain a means of earning money. Forcing a particular stream down a child's mind is akin to not letting him think for himself. The education system basically teaches you a broad base of subjects so that the child can pick and choose what he likes and discard what he dislikes. This singular step of choosing the subject of choice as a major and thereby increasing the chances of excelling in it is the hallmark of our education system. Doing away with that would mean that either the system would make choices for the kid or else the kid would make choice for himself at a very immature age, both of which can lead to potentially catastrophic results.
Thirdly, the sole aim of Education should not be a means to an end. As the great Indian Philosopher and spiritual leader Swami Vivekananda has said "Education is the manifestation of the perfection that already exists in man". In essence the goal of education should never be so narrow as securing a job and also should never culminate in just a degree offering. Education should concern about the overall development of the child who impressionable mind should question, develop an inquisitive talent and seek answers rather than be taught to suppress the questions and spoon-fed answers. The wider variety of the subject may not seem to be an essential activity at a young age but with age one would seem to be more appreciative of the matter taught at a young age. Fostering a sense of competition at a young age is good but putting them through the paces of the rat race is a very bad habit. The goal as a child should always be about assimilating the knowledge and satiate the inquisitiveness rather than cram the data and spit in out in papers at the end of the term in lieu of a handful of numbers.
Fourthly most of specialized jobs of today need a multi-disciplinary approach and a narrow minded education system would just not suffice in training students for these jobs. For example a pharmacist/biochemist needs as much knowledge of biology as she needs of chemistry with ample amounts of mathematics thrown in for complex calculations. Similarly a computer scientist dealing with fuzzy logic, artificial intelligence and neural networks needs to know as much about mathematical algorithmic analyses as he does about computer theory, human physiology and neurology. Such inter-disciplinary texture forms the fabric of much of the future jobs with are greatly helped by the broad range of subjects taught in the earlier days at school in the primary and secondary grades.
Concluding I would thereby state that the training imparted to a student in the form of broad range of non-specific skills and information is essential and that would prepare him better for tomorrow rather than a narrow minded approach of education concentrating only on "highly specialized jobs of the future"
The issue presented above is a highly volatile and a deeply contentious statement. As such job oriented training is a highly contentious subject but when you combine the issue of primary and secondary education the subject assumes enormous proportions. Even though early exposure to job oriented training has its own set of advantages I would contend that primary and secondary education of a child should provide him with a broad range of skills.
Firstly the idea of predicting "jobs of future" is somewhere between dream and wishful thinking. The time line between primary school education and joining the job market is a good decade and a half. In today's world where yesterday's technological innovations are obsolete even before tomorrow happens predicting a scenario 15 years hence is just preposterous. Essentially we might end up preparing a child for a job that would hit its peak when the child reached high school and tapers down by the time he graduates. Take the example of medical transcription. At one point in time near of the turn of century it was a hot job sector in India with the spate of offshore contracting happening in that sector was booming. But a few years down the line it’s faded in glory. A child equipped with skills specific to that industry would be unable to sustain himself and with limited other skills switching industries at a mature age is simply not possible.
Secondly a career should always be by choice and never by chance. At the end of the day the job should be treated as a vocation rather than a profession. Only if one derives the joy from the work would the long term sustainability and ultimately job satisfaction some easily else the job would just remain a means of earning money. Forcing a particular stream down a child's mind is akin to not letting him think for himself. The education system basically teaches you a broad base of subjects so that the child can pick and choose what he likes and discard what he dislikes. This singular step of choosing the subject of choice as a major and thereby increasing the chances of excelling in it is the hallmark of our education system. Doing away with that would mean that either the system would make choices for the kid or else the kid would make choice for himself at a very immature age, both of which can lead to potentially catastrophic results.
Thirdly, the sole aim of Education should not be a means to an end. As the great Indian Philosopher and spiritual leader Swami Vivekananda has said "Education is the manifestation of the perfection that already exists in man". In essence the goal of education should never be so narrow as securing a job and also should never culminate in just a degree offering. Education should concern about the overall development of the child who impressionable mind should question, develop an inquisitive talent and seek answers rather than be taught to suppress the questions and spoon-fed answers. The wider variety of the subject may not seem to be an essential activity at a young age but with age one would seem to be more appreciative of the matter taught at a young age. Fostering a sense of competition at a young age is good but putting them through the paces of the rat race is a very bad habit. The goal as a child should always be about assimilating the knowledge and satiate the inquisitiveness rather than cram the data and spit in out in papers at the end of the term in lieu of a handful of numbers.
Fourthly most of specialized jobs of today need a multi-disciplinary approach and a narrow minded education system would just not suffice in training students for these jobs. For example a pharmacist/biochemist needs as much knowledge of biology as she needs of chemistry with ample amounts of mathematics thrown in for complex calculations. Similarly a computer scientist dealing with fuzzy logic, artificial intelligence and neural networks needs to know as much about mathematical algorithmic analyses as he does about computer theory, human physiology and neurology. Such inter-disciplinary texture forms the fabric of much of the future jobs with are greatly helped by the broad range of subjects taught in the earlier days at school in the primary and secondary grades.
Concluding I would thereby state that the training imparted to a student in the form of broad range of non-specific skills and information is essential and that would prepare him better for tomorrow rather than a narrow minded approach of education concentrating only on "highly specialized jobs of the future"
posted by shaun's world at
6:21 PM
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