BY BUULE FRANCIS
After having studied a degree in International business(MUBS), a certificate in counseling (senior 6 vocation) and now Procurement (U.C.U) I believe that changing the educational system is something that has to happen.
During my undergraduate studies at MUBS I always reached that point where I couldn’t see the connection between what was I learning with what I wanted to learn. I felt bad wanting to learn other things or in another way and I discovered myself learning by myself about things that truly mattered to me and that had a posteriory a huge impact on my life today. Going to class or reporting to work was often a job that I didn’t want to do.
Today knowledge is everywhere constantly changing, growing exponentially. Today knowledge is free and it is in any device connected to the internet. It’s become a commodity. There’s no competitive advantage today in knowing more than the person next to you. The world doesn’t care what you know. What the world cares about is what you can do with what you know.
HARDSHIPS FACED
Length
Do we really need to spend full time 3 years to 4 years of our precious lives to get a degree? Most of my software, design and management I learned at night after classes in short spans of time. Motivation was the key. We have to go to classes that take all our days not allowing us to have other activities on the side like starting a startup. Having to quit school to create a startup is a risk that most people don’t want to take (so they don’t create)
Quality
How many times do we drop a class or a subject that we could have otherwise loved because of a teacher we didn’t like or a too crowded class or bad timing or overlapping of classes. Classes in most universities are not updated (at the speed of innovation) and we end up learning things that are not up-to-date.
Content
We are filled with knowledge — instead classes should be focusing on developing our innovation skills and motivation to succeed
Most of the things I have been forced to learn without wanting to or without a teacher showing me the need and the application: I have forgot. We learn better and in a happier way when we understand why we learn it.
Choice
We are unable to select which teachers we would like to learn from . We all know that the person matters.
We are unable to select which classes we want from till we start college and it is not the case in all universities.
Electives are limited and we can’t learn what we want. We have to decide very soon what is it that we want to learn and then stick into the system till we get the degree. It is against nature.
Flexibility
There is no option of stopping for a semester school to create something.
Attendance is compulsory.
There is no option of taking some of the courses per week online or at night or having an option that would take into account that we are launching a startup and we can’t do all the assignments.
WAY FORWARD
Learning to be an innovator is about learning to cross disciplinary boundaries and exploring problems and their solutions from multiple perspectives. We should be allowed to be rewarded if we want to learn things that we believe are important for us to grow.
Having the possibility of changing from one degree to another at any moment and not getting penalization for that. We are evolving by nature, we change our mind till we get to something that makes sense to us but that might take some time so we should be encouraged to change and find our ‘place’.
Classes should be project orientated and we should be able at the end of a degree to show a personal portfolio showing what we are capable of.
Why wouldn’t we just get exams/show a project before we apply to a specific job and demonstrate this way that we have the knowledge that it is required for the job.
