Educating for tomorrow

Maysoon El-Ahmad on Nov 5, 2018

“The things we teach our children are things from the past 200 years – its knowledge based. And we cannot teach our kids to compete with machines, they are smarter…we should be teaching kids skills that no machine can possess. Like independent thinking, teamwork and care for others.” Jack Ma, Founder Ali Baba
There are some interesting education models that are rising to this challenge:
- Lindfield Learning Village due to open in Sydney in 2019 is based on a “stage not age” approach – students will progress at their own pace assisted by a learning mentor. All subjects will collide to be more relevant for tomorrow – using maths, science, art and English in the development of a video game for example.
- In rural India, a group of entrepreneurs are establishing a similar school with a greater focus on building EQ and technology skills
- Alt School in the US is a veteran in this space. It opened in 2013 and has rejected all standardised testing in favour of developing tech skills
Tertiary institutions while embracing the challenge with a huge focus (financially and operationally) on innovation and technology are challenged by new models of learning as a departure from the highly lucrative 3-4 year tertiary degree
The Minerva Project in the US is leading the way offering pathways that focus on critical and creative thinking and problem solving, effective communication and teamwork

The education sector is likely to be shaken up by industry visionaries who have everything to gain from a new generation of workers equipped for the fourth industrial revolution
Education will become more personalised and online in the future creating serious issues for long standing traditional models
“soft skills” such as EQ and creativity will overtake STEM as the focus of educators of the future