The International Movement Youth Time had asked young people what they think about education and here are their answers.
I see the great demand for this kind of ideas and projects that will touch upon education, obstacles in the realm of successful educative reforms, new challenges, etc, as this is an issue that worries thousands of minds in a constant struggle to answer a general question — which educative system is better”.
Akop Gabrielyan, Youth Time Member, Master’s student at Central European University (Budapest), politologist, Armenia
I would like to emphasise the need for Lifelong Learning (not as an EU paradigm but simply a need for a changing world we are living, working and learning in) and the big big advantages of Non-Formal education within this process and its fruitful combination with the formal educational system”.
Markus Rebitschek, Youth Time Member, Founder, Chairman & CEO at nonprofit association “Culture Goes Europe (CGE) — Soziokulturelle Initiative Erfurt e.V.”, Germany
When speaking about education, a series of issues that influence each other mutually must be considered. Further, in order to deal with the topic properly, all these relevant factors should be studied in detail because education is a complex topic. Having in mind this, we should take one step towards the future and not two steps back to the past by recalling well known principles. Thus, I accept your invitation to join the scientific group and the group of moderators and look forward discussing the new paradigm of education with you”.
Thomas Wanker, Italy
A paradigm shift in education is as necessary as ever before, and I look forward to working with you to create that change as I believe that education must adapt to the changed realities of today and tomorrow. The effects of this new global risk society are felt in almost every country of the world and include a second dilemma of our times: multiculturalism and the transition towards becoming multicultural sensitive societies. Multicultural societies already exist in every developed country, and they will increasingly play a role in society due to demographic changes and other factors.
1. Intercultural Competence: The complex risk and multicultural societies of today make having intercultural competence one of the most important skills of the 21th century. While the definitions of intercultural competence differ, they all agree that it is the ability to understand and navigate in environments that are different from one’s own.
This capacity of accepting differences and learning to adapt towards changing realities is, and will be, a key determiner of success and value creation for tomorrow.
2. Independence: This dynamic fast changing reality creates the need for independent thinkers, with the skills to acquire and process information quickly and by themselves. The best blueprint for creating an education system that achieves this can be found in Scandinavia, which utilizes a system that focuses on identifying the talents and weaknesses of young members of society during the early phases of childhood. (…) The need for the ability to process and capitalize on information holds especially true in these times of the third education revolution, which has brought us free online university, open source learning and free data.
3. Innovation: Education has the mission to foster young pupils so that they can enrich all strands of society, and it must strive to live up to this responsibility in this changing environment.
Nikolas Papageorgiou, Youth Time Member, Germany
The paradigm should be a bit refocused on individuality, on talents and abilities disclosures (here I remembered the Sorting Hat in Harry Potter movie, which was wise enough to understand what faculty to advise to the student according his skills and character). Alumni should be engaged (either successful and young or mature and prosperous). Innovation for all disciplined should be provided. Creative thinking should be developed. Independence should be given to students in applied disciplines (theory still stays theory, there are still fundamental science, e.g. history, philosophy and by the way all of you make quotations of great thinkers which are still crucial and actual)”.
Maria Semenova, Youth Time Member, singer, startuper, Russia
I think education of tomorrow must be something that combines
1. Ability to get the job or make a job through entrepreneurship
2. Responsibility and accountability to local social norms and international debates
3. Ability to take a position based on moral, religious, practical grounds and make decision and lead groups and teams”.
Anirudh Agrawal, Youth Time Member, PhD Fellow doing research in social entrepreneurship, Copenhagen Business School, India
Education continues to be the same today, a means of creating useful workers and useful tool for assuring that culture will always be repetitive and uniform which means preserving the current structure of society.
- Now education is an administrative process not a creative one.
- Should all people have equal quantity and quality of knowledge?
- School as institution becomes the tool of social exclusion though claims the opposite aim.
- Modern education is oriented on giving answers instead of developing the skill to generate questions and then find answers
- In modern education emphasis is on result but not on the process
- Education should respond to external necessity and develop internal skills (human being as a cell which gets vital energy from inside but is self-sufficient from inside).
- Now we understand that we should make education more emotional (develop this skill) but how can it be taught by teachers of previous generation?
- The key idea is not to find a new pedagogy (and then another one, and then …) but to adequate pedagogy to the cultural moment”.
From the documentary “Prohibited education” (August 2012), quotations provided by Olesya Lilikovich, Project manager, Youth Time Moscow Office, PhD student, Russia