How to create an educational system that creates leaders and not civil servants?

According to the Human Economic Report Assignment writing service of the World Economic Forum, more than a third of the organizations interviewed reported that they had difficulties finding talent and more than half foreshadowed that the lack of talent would have a negative impact on the results of their business. However, according to the study, the amount of human talent in the world is enormous. To unlock it, governments, business leaders and educational institutions must make significant changes.

The "official" syndrome

In this sense, one of the biggest challenges that Spain has to overcome is the change in the education system. It is urgent that schools teach future generations the skills required in today's world and facilitate the development of their full potential.  This very necessary change must especially address the way in which students contemplate their professional careers, which in Spain is one of the most important deficiencies of the system, representing a clear obstacle to economic growth. 

During my years in high school and college, I always wondered why the best students wanted to become civil servants. Why would the most talented comrades, with great intellectual capacity and enormous potential, choose the easiest and most comfortable way of a life dedicated exclusively to public services?  At that time, I received several reasons, the most repeated:  a) a job that is not too demanding with fixed and limited hours  b) Lifelong job security due to not being fired.

However, in more advanced countries, the majority of the most talented students dream and work to become business leaders, managers, doctors, researchers, innovators, journalists, consultants, lawyers, etc. Many of them decide to start their own business to have a greater impact in the world.  During the last years, I have been investigating how the education system could be transformed to create leaders and not civil servants. How can we educate and encourage future generations to take more risks, be more curious, be more ambitious and have more faith in their potential? How can they develop a broader career and achieve a greater impact on the development of our country?

Evolution of educational systems

Analyzing briefly the evolution of education in the last 2,500 years, we see that we have gone from developing mainly warriors, philosophers, athletes, during the Greek and Roman periods; to the preparation of doctors, priests, writers, poets, astronomers, during the Middle Ages.  Modern education systems in Europe derive their origins from the schools of the early Middle Ages. Most schools during this era were founded on religious principles with the primary purpose of training the clergy. Education during this long period was mainly private.  Since the beginning of education systems, handicrafts and commerce have followed a different path, parallel to the mainstream of education. It was primarily a development path for poor and middle class families who could not afford to pay the high costs of school. The learning was done directly in the workshops from very early ages, which provided education, but in turn provided a job with some income to support families.  During the eighteenth century, governments' interest in education increased and led to the current system, which focuses on generalist rather than specialized development. The objective of the remodeling was to create "new citizens". At the end of the 19th century, most politicians in Europe saw education as a necessary element for applied political behavior and "produce obedient citizens".  Despite numerous subsequent improvements, the current education system remains focused mainly on this conformity and generalization.

Learning in the 21st century

 

Organizations pay to have a research paper done are looking for a new set of skills and abilities. A mixture of traditional themes with new fields, combined with strong interpersonal skills.

One of the most important initiatives in this field has been the P21 Framework for 21st Century Learning (P21 Framework for the 21st Century Learning), developed with the contribution of teachers, education experts and business leaders in order to determine and illustrate the skills and knowledge that students need to be successful at work today. As well as the support systems necessary for the new learning to have positive results. These are the main components of the framework for 21st century skills.

Traditional topics: reading, writing, mathematics, science, foreign languages, economics, arts, history and geography.

New skills: Students need to learn academic content, but in turn they also need to know how to learn and continue to learn - and make effective and innovative use of what they know - throughout their professional lives.

These skills are:

- Critical thinking and problem solving

- Communication

- Creativity and innovation

- Collaboration

- Contextual learning

Technology: The learning of new technologies is nowadays something fundamental. Students must be able to use technology to learn content and skills - so that they know how to learn, think critically, solve problems, use information, communicate, innovate and collaborate in their work.

Interpersonal Skills: These are one of the great additions in the new pedagogy and include:

 -Leadership

- Ethics

- Communication

- Public speaking

- Responsibility

- Adaptability

- Self-confidence

- Self-direction

- Social responsability

- Focus

Teaching method: Traditional classroom teaching should change to one based on projects and interactivity. Students will be presented with a problem and encouraged to work as a team to arrive at a solution. The presentations and the discussion with the class will be the way to learn and to teach.

Evaluations: One of the main changes introduced is the way in which students are evaluated. Nowadays, more assessments are standardized and can measure only some of the important skills and knowledge that students should learn. Evaluations should measure the five outcomes that matter - the core issues; new content; Learning and thinking skills; ICT Literacy; And life skills. To be effective, sustainable and affordable, evaluations must use modern technologies to increase efficiency and timeliness.

Mentality change

As I explained in the introduction to the article, apart from the proposed changes, it is essential that they be accompanied by an important mental transformation in the way in which children are taught.

Very few students choose to be officials when asked about their passion as children. Teachers need to inspire students to find and develop their passion from the early stages of their education. Teachers must act as teachers, and at the same time as facilitators.

Students have to be encouraged to take risks, to try new things and to explore different paths. The system has to stop penalizing the error. Instead, you have to accept it and teach how to draw lessons learned to be better. Undoubtedly, this will become one of the most valuable life skills they learn in school.