Is our educational system truly failed?

After finishing school, and right before diving into university, I started thinking about the experience I had at school. That’s when I realised that many aspects of it were simply wrong, not only in my country (which statistically is considered to be among the worst) but also in the ones nearby, with different systems, cultures, societies, and so on. This is not a secondary problem at all because educational systems are the foundation upon which nations thrive, economies grow, and individuals fulfil their potential. That’s why I tried to be pragmatic and, instead of diving into a heated yet useless invective against governments, schools, teachers, and so forth, I began to analyse the problem in order to, at least, start a serious conversation about it. Thus, how can we really improve the educational system?

1.Embracing Individualised Learning:

Adopting personalised learning strategies is fundamental. Every learner is different, with their own learning preferences, skills, and shortcomings. That’s what already in ancient Rome teachers failed to understand. And we have a clue of it because a well-known Latin orator and teacher, Quintilian, talks about it in his most important work “Institutio Oratoria”. In this work, he explains exactly that creating an environment where a single student’s needs are fulfilled is fundamental to encourage the learning process. The teacher has to create a setting in which each student can succeed by acknowledging and embracing his own peculiarities.Technology could play a big role in this, creating software or online platforms essential for providing individualised learning experiences. Additionally, developing flexible learning pathways that let students follow their passions and skills can boost motivation and engagement. However, we don’t have to forget that collaboration is a key factor, which seems to be a contradiction, but we must recall that school is a gym to prepare for the world right after it, and the interconnectedness of our world calls for educational systems that promote collaboration. Encouraging collaborative projects, multicultural exchanges, and global partnerships enriches students' understanding of diverse cultures, perspectives, and global challenges. Schools should foster a sense of empathy, inclusivity, and intercultural competence, preparing students to navigate an increasingly interconnected global society.

2. Promoting Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving Skills:

Secondly, it is crucial to provide children with the ability to think critically and solve problems since we live in an era where there is an abundance of information. Our educational system should place more of an emphasis on critical thinking, creativity, and the capacity to tackle complicated problems than just on memorization and repetition of data (obviously except for the essentials such as geography, historical events and basic maths). These abilities can be developed through promoting project-based learning, group projects, and open-ended questions.We enable students to become active participants in their own education and build lifelong skills that are crucial in the current world by reorienting the emphasis from rote learning to critical thinking. The motivation is quite obvious: the world we live in everyday presents new challenges, new questions, new political, economical, environmental, and social problems. That’s why the student school is training in order to let him be tomorrow's citizen has to be prepared to face any challenge with critical thinking and the ability of thinking out of the box. Henceforth all the notions and informations must be useful; not only do they have to provide knowledge but also inspire the student, make him question certain aspects of his way of living, provide him values, and so on.

3. Integrating Technology in the Classroom:

Nearly every part of our lives has been transformed by technology, and education shouldn't be an exception. Even if it seems an obvious statement ‘still in many schools this feature is completely ignored. By broadening access to resources and fostering engaging environments, integrating technology into the classroom can improve teaching and learning. Virtual reality, educational apps, interactive whiteboards, and online learning environments can all be used to enhance conventional teaching techniques (be careful: enhance, not substitute!). However, in order to fulfil this aspect, educators need sufficient training and support to use technology wisely and raise a generation of digital natives capable of using the digital world properly. And this brings us straight to the next point.

4. Encouraging Teacher Professional Development:

In order for an educational system to be effective, teachers are essential. It is crucial to fund educators' ongoing professional development if we want to guarantee high-quality education. It is essential to give teachers chances to expand their pedagogical knowledge, stay current on research and best practices, and learn new teaching techniques. Professional development programs for teachers should put an emphasis on providing them with the tools they need to engage a variety of students, effectively manage classroom dynamics, and create a good learning environment. This means that courses, meetings, and so on should be promoted differently. Teachers must perceive those occasions as a moment to better understand their working environment (with colleagues and students), and also as occasions to broaden their knowledge, question their teaching methods, and update their way of communicating with younger generations. Our efforts to support and empower teachers have a beneficial knock-on effect that benefits students, schools, and the educational system as a whole.

Taking everything into account, these are only a few fundamentals that I believe to be overlooked, and which need to be improved urgently due to these are the aspects that affect the most the quality of our educational system, causing school dropouts in the short period, and a society less aware, capable of making the right decisions in any realm of common living in the long one. This improvement is fundamental, and it has to start with ourselves by honestly evaluating our experience at school, what we learned and what we missed due to our behaviour or simply because it wasn’t transmitted properly. Thus, instead of uselessly criticising school, teachers, headmasters, ect… start by asking: Did school fail me or did I fail school?