Our Education System: From Industrialization to Industry 4.0

We are pleased to announce the next award winning submission of Soch’21- the article writing competition as a part of Prabandhan 21– the flagship management conclave of IIT Kanpur, in association with From The Experts’ Mouth. This article analyzing the education system right from the era of Industrialization to Industry 4.0 that has been written by Sarthak Dave is the winner of the second prize of Soch’21, and does justice to the sub-theme of The One Lesson. We mentioned it before, but it bears repeating that Soch ’21 received over 1,000 registrations on the fascinating topic of The One Thought that can change the world.

Do you realize that The One Lesson – that the education system itself needs is to learn to equip the youth for the future? If you have that one Soch, then why don’t you continue reading and enlighten yourself with more scintillating ideas to strive our education system much harder in near future?

Abstract

The present-day educational ecosystem in India, and perhaps even worldwide, is designed and run on the fundamental basis of industrialization with a larger solitary aim of producing job-able graduates who shall be deemed for a life out of the subjects taught in the four walls of a so-called classroom. It is indeed agonizing that in line with the outdated industry, which was principally cushioned on the facets of uniformity and standardization, our education system is still revolving around those facets, ignoring the very uniqueness and ability of each student.

It is this realization, this one lesson, that calls for cherishing the uniqueness of individual beings, that can drastically improve our standard of education and accordingly prepare our youth for the next century, which is expected to be high on customization and personalization of goods and services.

It is indeed agonizing that our education system is still revolving around these facets of uniformity and standardization, ignoring the very uniqueness and ability of each student.
Sarthak Dave

The Historical Anecdote

Our education system today is largely the way it is, as a result of industrialization in Britain in the 18th century. In the pre-industrialization era, education, as a commodity or service was restricted to the elite classes-who never really attended standardized educational institutes and were often educated personally by home- tutors. In India, on the other hand, education was considered a critical part of one’s lifespan and in accordance with the “guru-shishya” tradition; learning was highly personalized and thus catered to the unique abilities that a student withheld.

The idea was simple, only if uniqueness is cherished will the true potential of a child reach its inflection point in reality, otherwise, one may find a job, but the integral character building and ethical standpoint shall always remain weak. Further, because Guru’s were the masters of a child’s potential, it was, and still is considered a noble profession with a semi-godly status in society.

The Present Day Context of the Education System

However, what we see now is just a mass production of knowledge in a class, its reproduction in the exam, a job, a monthly salary, and an overall rotten system that leaves people desperate, greedy, and prone to suicide and depression.

It is high time we realize that if kids are educated as if it were an assembly line in four walls of a room, they can only be trained on a subject/skill that fetches them a job, nothing else.

Sadly, the state of affairs is such that this still remains the focal point of our overall objective.

The Objective Of Our Education System

As was evident out of the whole industrialization process, the sole objective then was to build a mass workforce that can sit on a desk 9-5, do some math, write some mails and support the industry ecosystem.

However, in India and other eastern cultures, values have always been accorded the highest status in the society and therefore, ancient Indian education laid heavy emphasis on developing ethical people who remain steady and supportive of the societal cause, not just earn a living.

It may be appealing to assume that today there exists a distinct tradeoff between values and earning, making them mutually exclusive in every sphere. However, a deeper understanding will reveal that they actually complement each other in numerous ways. Values shape a character that ultimately shapes a personality and overall a person creates an identity irrespective of the circumstances – giving him/her an edge and fostering trust – the most crucial of all factors that affect a business decision. A characterless person, no matter how skilled he/she may be, is doomed for a life of a dog, roaming unclear in an increasingly super-fast world.

The Practicality

Let’s face it, going back in time is neither practically doable nor financially feasible. However, what’s urgent today is to incorporate aspects of ethics and character building in the education system. We need to allow room for personalization and celebrate the individuality of every student.

21st Century Skills of Industry 4.0

The industrial revolution is long gone, and as we move on to the 21st Century of Industry 4.0, much of the manual work will be taken up by machines and robots that will do such stuff way faster and accurately than any human can, with people remaining at the helm of what machines cannot do – taking decisions and managing people.

Decision-making ability is something that will remain unique to humans, irrespective of the hype around AI since the humane aspects can never ever be accorded status by AI, with its sole focus being on complementing humans in day-to-day tasks that require a minimum/no personalization.

Similarly, leading people, developing resilience in teams, and fostering trust and motivation in fellow humans are the most fundamental of all skills that will be talked about in Industry 4.0, and thus developing a whole generation of humans who don’t know these subtle aspects, is of no use.

Conclusion

To conclude, the fact is simple, we are amidst a digital tsunami and technological revolution that will no longer need people who think and act in a standard way. Diversity and identity shall be the buzzwords, and to cater to that, we need education systems that demolish old-age industrial style mechanisms with a new-age personalized approach to teaching and development.

Some Ed-Tech startups do just that, bringing customization and quality that achieves scale through technological support. That’s essentially what needs to be done at the base level, with a focused approach to values, ethics, and character-building that develops sensitive and value-driven humans who lead us to prosperity over manual robotic graduates who know the Pythagoras theorem but can’t swiftly manage a team of 5 or express themselves clearly.

EQ, or Emotional Quotient, will be more important than IQ and future leaders will be those mindful of the societal cause in line with the business operation.

Thus, the idea is simple, develop qualitative aspects, cherish individuality and focus on ethics, the youth of tomorrow will be taken care of!

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About The Author

Sarthak Dave is studying Bachelor’s in Economics from Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, Delhi University. He heads Research and Analysis for 180 Degrees Consulting at his college and is also the founder of Econnance, an academic blog site to cater to content and research in the domains of Economics, Finance, Public Policy and Business.

This article won the Second prize at Soch ’21; the writing competition at Prabandhan ’21 the flagship management conclave of IIT Kanpur; in association with From The Experts’ Mouth.