Reimagining Education: Building A Better World

As my 7-year-old son prepare for exams, he came to me with his notes to help him out. I pitied him and wondered why someone will punish him with exams. I felt at his age, he should be using his hands to create something and express himself rather than trying to read to pass exams. The outcome of exams is only a test of his ability to memorize something not to express himself or his intelligence.

In 1993, as a freshman in the University, I decided that one day I was going to write a book about education titled My Father Must Be Crazy. I eventually wrote the book in 2019. I gave it that title then because of how I felt about education. I wanted more but realized that education was more about grades and getting a certificate.

It’s my dream to create a school one day that is not focused on grades and exams. I love education but detest exams. My dad taught me that education is not what I get within the four walls of the classroom. If it’s not then why do we spend more time in the classroom than on the field or out in the world?

He also taught me that we don’t ever go on holiday from education even though school goes on holiday. When school happened to education the purpose got lost. Do we then do away with school altogether in order to produce people who are educated?

Do you know that education is one sector that has resisted and fought innovation? Apart from education technology, everything about education has remained the same. And instead of things getting better, they are getting worse. When you look at society, the way it is, you certainly know that we need to start reimagining how education is created and delivered. Something has to give or we will end up with nothing.

The focus on certificates and grades has closed up schools from getting better. Anyone who wants to innovate has to focus on how students can get better grades. From high school to University, the focus on grades has made the school system a closed system that doesn’t receive input from outside: as such closed to feedback.

Any system that doesn’t take feedback from outside to improve its operation may likely experience entropy. The rate of disorder in the school system has not made it deliver qualitative education to people. Instead, things are getting worse. Innovation can only happen where there is openness and a growth mindset. Teachers and professors should be able to accept that something is wrong and they are open to new ideas.

After I wrote the book, My Father Must Be Crazy, I started reimagining how an entrepreneur will envision education in order to move it from a lower level of productivity to a high level of productivity. Education is the greatest weapon to transforming people’s lives and building a better world. And the classroom is the lab where development and transformation happens.

Is there one thing that can transform education? Yes, I came up with one thing. Care. That is why I am championing the Truly Human Education concept globally. The school system has the greatest power to influence families, companies and governments. I am amazed most times when teachers complain about parents and governments. Everyone in government and a family was once a student.

If the school system had cared for them as humans, teachers would be benefiting today and not complaining. However, when we introduce care into the school system, everyone gets treated as a human. When the school cares for everyone within it as humans, it will have the power to transform society.

I re-imagine school as:

1. A place where human, economic, and academic values are created in harmony. That is every stakeholder becomes humanly, economically, and academically valuable.

2. A place where teachers see themselves first as leaders and coaches and then subject matter experts. The classroom should be a place for the transformation of lives. The future and potential of the world are in the classroom.

3. A place where people are prepared to become useful citizens in society. The school has the potential to develop people into responsible citizens who will add value to society.

4. A place where students learn to solve problems, think on their own, and be enterprising. ?We need more creative and innovative people in the world.

5. A place that prepares people to function in the industry, government, and society. School should be a place where people’s capacity and capability are developed to make them relevant and effective in their chosen profession.

We are working with high schools and universities to make this happen. The way students are treated in schools determines the choices they make and how effective they become in the industry. Schools are embracing our Truly Human Education. Schools should not just be a place where comparison happens but individual uniqueness and collaboration happen.

What is your own concept of education? How are you reimagining education to be?

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