The future of schooling and the awareness of educators By Hossam Badrawi

“The future of schooling and the awareness of educators.
By
Hossam Badrawi

I wrote an article weeks ago titled “The Difference in Meanings and the Dispute Over Definitions of Enlightenment, Secularism, and Liberalism.” A few days ago, I called for a dialogue about the future of education in Egypt, and I found myself returning to the possibility of acknowledging first the difference in meanings of the words in the mind of the questioner and the responders, and I decided to first verify and agree on the definition and meaning before delving into the topic of the future of education.

Since everyone talks about education, suffers from it, and has hopes for it, and everyone is immersed in its details, I first saw fit to define my objectives, and secondly, to connect the future with the present and the past.

There is a confusion between the concept of learning , gaining knowledge and education, between the goal and the means. The dialogue about school institute, and university revolves around the means, not the goal.

Join me on a short journey about the history of schooling and universities , and how schools began from the beginning, and how they evolved, to know where the dialogue is leading us.

I read a book about the greatest figures who impacted humanity and I did not find in the vast majority of them anyone who was a student in a school in its current sense. Neither Muhammad, nor Jesus, nor Moses, nor Abraham, with all their impact on human history, learned in a school, nor Buddha, nor Confucius, nor Al-Farabi, nor Socrates, nor Newton, the creator of the theory of gravity, nor Ts’ai Lun, the inventor of paper, nor the Egyptians who wrote on papyrus, nor the engineers of the temples and pyramids, nor those who invented the calendar and agricultural tools, nor most of those who started the industrial revolution, nor Gutenberg, the inventor of the printing press, nor Leonardo da Vinci, nor Shakespeare.

I mention here examples known to the average reader… and the great thinker Abbass Alakkad did not complete his schooling beyond elementary stage and did not study at a university. I add to them the leaders of the armies and those who ruled the world, such as Julius Caesar Alexander the Great and others, and before them all the rightly guided caliphs, and after them those who ruled the world east and west, and those who invaded and established empires. And those who were the foundation of civilization, such as Aristotle, Plato, Ibn Rushd, and Ibn Khaldun, and others, none of them entered a regular school printed in our concept, which is the form and means that we have adopted systematically only in the eighteenth century for the purpose of teaching religion and preparing armies.”

Yes, the implicit goal was the call to religion in the concept of its men, obedience, and military skill in the concept of invasion and power. So the school in its regular concept was, and unfortunately still is, the production of groups of people who believe in ideas set by their system, to succeed if they agree with the specific answer, and to fail if they oppose it. There is one right answer and the rest are wrong. There is a test that measures the extent to which the student agrees with the specific answer, even though all those who made leaps in history were those who went beyond the norm, thought outside the box and the patterns, and expanded their imagination further than a previous generation decided for them.

If we look at our schools today from a practical pragmatic logic, we must make a serious stand and create a sharp qualitative leap. What is our goal in learning? The school and our educational system are merely a means and not the goal in themselves. What do we want from our children and youth in the future? We must find the means, not follow the same means that have produced what we are complaining about now.

I will give you a practical example: You have a factory with production lines that produce products. Their goal is to sell it in the local market and for export, and to meet people’s needs. If you bring in the best machines and put inefficient workers on the production line, and produce in a slow rate, a product that the market does not need, you will lose the value of your productive inputs and your excellent raw materials, and you will not be able to benefit from the outputs of this factory because the market does not want it. So, you will lose and inevitably you will go bankrupt.

Schools in Egypt are your factories for producing competent, competitive humans who elevate the value of your nation. If the factory continues to operate in the same way, you will incur the same losses year after year and generation after generation.

Have a little patience with me to understand the theory. Your raw materials are our children and youth, who are of the finest kinds compared to their peers in other countries in the world, historically and presently. But, over the past fifty years, we have repeatedly decided that our teachers and education officials, who are our human resources in managing our resources, are the least competent and lowest paid (of course there are mutations and exceptions). Our production lines (I mean our schools) have become inefficient, and our product, which continues for 18 consecutive years within its production lines, is not competitive and is not needed by the market, yet we insist on continuing to work in the same way.

Is there stupidity and a lack of vision like this?

The factory is losing, and no matter how much you renew its mechanisms, change its contents, and spend billions on repeating the construction of similar factories, you will achieve the same result, and the loss will even be compounded.

It’s like you want to go to Alexandria and you take the train or car to Aswan. No matter how much you renovate the car, change the driver, widen the road, and repave it ten times, in the end, you are going to where you didn’t intend to… you will reach Aswan and not Alexandria… Have you achieved your goal? Have you attained what you sought? Did your boasting about spending and effort in the means lead you to what you wanted?

The issue, ladies & gentlemen, is not in the school because it is just a means, a factory for learning and acquiring skills and knowledge, and we run education but we do not seek to achieve the goal. We, as officials and parents, have become immersed in the means. Unfortunately, everyone cheats and bribes (I consider private lessons in formal education as a bribe to obtain the certificate and have no relation to learning and knowledge). Everyone screams about the public examinations and the results, but no one looks at the goal…

I would like to convey to the reader a dialogue that took place with a group of members of the “Dreamers of Tomorrow” society, which indicates the youth’s awareness of the future and their desire for knowledge.

The intelligent and distinguished young woman asked me: “What are the most important skills that young people need for work now and in the future, Doctor?”

I said: “The most important three skills currently required in the job market are: the ability to work as a team, communication and interpersonal skills, and the ability to adapt to change. In addition to these, leadership skills are required for many positions at multiple levels… and of course, this is in addition to digital skills and computer usage, and the knowledge of a second language alongside Arabic.”

Her colleague said: “Of course, this is outside the scope of specializations such as medicine, engineering, law, military colleges, and vocational colleges!”

I said: “No, my son, these skills are needed by doctors, engineers, lawyers, officers, teachers, and all specializations. There is no place in the workforce today, and definitely in the future, for those who do not possess them.”

Another young woman said, “It is said that a large number of today’s jobs will disappear and new jobs will emerge, which will make it difficult for job seekers, right?”

I said, “In simple terms, this is true. Jobs will disappear over the next five years, and most of these jobs are those dominated by repetitive patterns. However, on the other hand, thousands of new jobs will be created. This means expanding the available job options, not reducing them. Some jobs will disappear, such as the job of data entry, as with the growth of digital management, this will be done through “automation” and the collection of information through big data.”

“Specializations completely change as work platforms change. Here, I mention specializations we did not know before, such as virtual reality developers, self-driving car engineers, and others like data analysts, computer systems analysts, information security specialists, code developers and analysts, digital marketers, and software designers. Unfortunately, most new specializations do not have educational curricula or training programs in universities; instead, major companies are preparing young people for them, not traditional educational institutions.”

“Even in fields like medicine and law, for example, the essence of the profession may continue, yet the specifications of a future doctor and lawyer are changing now and will change tomorrow due to the availability of knowledge, alternatives, changing the quality of service seekers, immediate review of decisions, and the ability to compare them with international standards.”

“Distance learning and training have become a reality without the need to buy land or rent buildings and spend billions, and nano degrees, which do not cost the applicants significant resources, are emerging and will appear. There are also professional diplomas to enhance the performance of employees, as long as their students have the necessary skills for them.”

He looked at me and asked, “What do you mean by automation, Doctor? Does your statement mean that education in universities and schools will not be the only place for learning or awarding certificates?”

I said, “I didn’t know the term ‘automation’ until I read several reports on the future of jobs and work. It is an Arabic term that means automatic operation. It is a newly coined term that refers to anything that operates automatically without human intervention. Automation can be described as the use of computers, processor-based devices, or software in various industrial, commercial, and service sectors to ensure…The challenge facing educational systems is significant, and if the rate of change within any educational institution is slower than the rate of change occurring outside of it, then we can expect its eventual demise in the foreseeable future. An educational system that ignores the development and changes shaping the future will gradually lose its relevance and connection to students’ lives. Therefore, it is necessary to redefine our educational institutions, from pre-school to university, to prepare our students for the future, not the past.

Everything the mind can conceive will happen; otherwise, why did the idea of life’s cycle, which is now less than two years, occur to me? The important thing is how we participate in shaping the future and not remain idle spectators, applauding at times and criticizing at other times. How can we engage while maintaining ethical virtues and societal values, which we declare and commit to upholding while building, without arrogance toward others, without violence, discrimination, hatred, or excommunication, with open-mindedness and love, seeking evidence, respecting differences, and embracing diversity of thought? an article weeks ago titled “The Difference in Meanings and the Dispute Over Definitions of Enlightenment, Secularism, and Liberalism.” A few days ago, I called for a dialogue about the future of education in Egypt, and I found myself returning to the possibility of the difference in meanings of words in the mind of the questioner , and I decided to first verify and agree on the definition and meaning before delving into the topic of the future of education.

Since everyone talks about education, suffers from it, and hopes for it, and everyone is immersed in its details, I first saw fit to define my objectives, and secondly, to connect the future with the present and the past.

There is a confusion between the concept of learning , gaining knowledge and education, between the goal and the means. The dialogue about school institute, and university revolves around the means, not the goal.

Come with me on a short journey about the history of schooling and university, and how schools began from the beginning, and how they evolved, to know where the dialogue is leading us.

I read a book about the greatest figures who impacted humanity and I did not find in the vast majority of them anyone who was a student in a school in its current sense. Neither Muhammad, nor Jesus, nor Moses, nor Abraham, with all their impact on human history, learned in a school, nor Buddha, nor Confucius, nor Al-Farabi, nor Socrates, nor Newton, the creator of the theory of gravity, nor Ts’ai Lun, the inventor of paper, nor the Egyptian who wrote on papyrus, nor the engineers of the temples and pyramids, nor those who invented the calendar and agricultural tools, nor most of those who started the industrial revolution, nor Gutenberg, the inventor of the printing press, nor Leonardo da Vinci, nor Shakespeare.

I mention here examples known to the average reader… and the great thinker Abbass Alakkad did not complete his schooling beyond elementary stage and did not study at a university. I add to them the leaders of the armies and those who ruled the world, such as Julius Caesar Alexander the Great and others, and before them all the rightly guided caliphs, and after them those who ruled the world east and west, and those who invaded and established empires. And those who were the foundation of civilization, such as Aristotle, Plato, Ibn Rushd, and Ibn Khaldun, and others, none of them entered a regular school printed in our concept, which is the form and means that we have adopted systematically only in the eighteenth century for the purpose of teaching religion and preparing armies.”

Yes, the implicit goal was the call to religion in the concept of its men, obedience, and military skill in the concept of invasion and power. So the school in its regular concept was, and unfortunately still is, the production of groups of people who believe in ideas set by their system, to succeed if they agree with the specific answer, and to fail if they oppose it. There is one right answer and the rest are wrong. There is a test that measures the extent to which the student agrees with the specific answer, even though all those who made leaps in history were those who went beyond the norm, thought outside the box and the patterns, and expanded their imagination further than a previous generation decided for them.

If we look at our schools today from a practical pragmatic logic, we must make a serious stand and create a sharp qualitative leap. What is our goal in learning? The school and our educational system are merely a means and not the goal in themselves. What do we want from our children and youth in the future? We must find the means, not follow the same means that have produced what we are complaining about now.

I will give you a practical example: You have a factory with production lines that produce products. Their goal is to be sold in the local market and for export, and to meet people’s needs. If you bring in the best machines and put inefficient workers on the production line, and produce slowly, a product that the market does not need, you will lose the value of your productive inputs and your excellent raw materials, and you will not be able to benefit from the outputs of this factory because the market does not want it. So, you are a loser and will inevitably go bankrupt.

Schools in Egypt are your factories for producing competent, competitive humans who elevate the value of your nation. If the factory continues to operate in the same way, you will incur the same losses year after year and generation after generation.

Have a little patience with me to understand the theory. Your raw materials are our children and youth, who are of the finest kinds and comparable to their peers in other countries in the world, historically and presently. But, over the past fifty years, we have repeatedly decided that our teachers and education officials, who are our human resources in managing our resources, are the least competent and lowest paid (of course there are mutations and exceptions). Our production lines (I mean our schools) have become inefficient, and our product, which continues for 18 consecutive years within its production lines, is not competitive and is not needed by the market, yet we insist on continuing to work in the same way.

Is there stupidity and a lack of vision like this?

The factory is losing, and no matter how much you renew its mechanisms, change its contents, and spend billions on repeating the construction of similar factories, you will achieve the same result, and the loss will even be compounded.

It’s like you want to go to Alexandria and you take the train or car to Aswan. No matter how much you renovate the car, change the driver, widen the road, and repave it ten times, in the end, you are going to where you didn’t intend to… you will reach Aswan and not Alexandria… Have you achieved your goal? Have you attained what you sought? Did your boasting about spending and effort in the means lead you to what you wanted?

The issue, gentlemen, is not in the school because it is just a means, a factory for learning and acquiring skills and knowledge, and we run education but we do not seek to achieve the goal. We, as officials and parents, have become immersed in the means. Unfortunately, everyone cheats and bribes (I consider private lessons in formal education as a bribe to obtain the certificate and have no relation to learning and knowledge). Everyone screams about the public examinations and the results, but no one looks at the goal…

I would like to convey to the reader a dialogue that took place with a group of members of the “Dreamers of Tomorrow” society, which indicates the youth’s awareness of the future and their desire for knowledge.

The intelligent and distinguished young woman asked me: “What are the most important skills that young people need for work now and in the future, Doctor?”

I said: “The most important three skills currently required in the job market are: the ability to work as a team, communication and interpersonal skills, and the ability to adapt to change. In addition to these, leadership skills are required for many positions at multiple levels… and of course, this is in addition to digital skills and computer usage, and the knowledge of a second language alongside Arabic.”

Her colleague said: “Of course, this is outside the scope of specializations such as medicine, engineering, law, military colleges, and vocational colleges!”

I said: “No, my son, these skills are needed by doctors, engineers, lawyers, officers, teachers, and all specializations. There is no place in the workforce today, and definitely in the future, for those who do not possess them.”

Another young woman said, “It is said that a large number of today’s jobs will disappear and new jobs will emerge, which will make it difficult for job seekers, right?”

I said, “In simple terms, this is true. Jobs will disappear over the next five years, and most of these jobs are those dominated by repetitive patterns. However, on the other hand, thousands of new jobs will be created. This means expanding the available job options, not reducing them. Some jobs will disappear, such as the job of data entry, as with the growth of digital management, this will be done through “automation” and the collection of information through big data.”

“Specializations completely change as work platforms change. Here, I mention specializations we did not know before, such as virtual reality developers, self-driving car engineers, and others like data analysts, computer systems analysts, information security specialists, code developers and analysts, digital marketers, and software designers. Unfortunately, most new specializations do not have educational curricula or training programs in universities; instead, major companies are preparing young people for them, not traditional educational institutions.”

“Even in fields like medicine and law, for example, the essence of the profession may continue, yet the specifications of a future doctor and lawyer are changing now and will change tomorrow due to the availability of knowledge, alternatives, changing the quality of service seekers, immediate review of decisions, and the ability to compare them with international standards.”

“Distance learning and training have become a reality without the need to buy land or rent buildings and spend billions, and nano degrees, which do not cost the applicants significant resources, are emerging and will appear. There are also professional diplomas to enhance the performance of employees, as long as their students have the necessary skills for them.”

He looked at me and asked, “What do you mean by automation, Doctor? Does your statement mean that education in universities and schools will not be the only place for learning or awarding certificates?”

I said, “I didn’t know the term ‘automation’ until I read several reports on the future of jobs and work. It is an Arabic term that means automatic operation. It is a newly coined term that refers to anything that operates automatically without human intervention. Automation can be described as the use of computers, processor-based devices, or software in various industrial, commercial, and service sectors to ensure…The challenge facing educational systems is significant, and if the rate of change within any educational institution is slower than the rate of change occurring outside of it, then we can expect its eventual demise in the foreseeable future. An educational system that ignores the developments and changes shaping the future will gradually lose its relevance and connection to students’ lives. Therefore, it is necessary to redefine our educational institutions, from pre-school to university, to prepare our students for the future, not the past.

Young people, everything the mind can conceive will happen; otherwise, why did the idea of life’s cycle, which is now less than two years, occur to me? The important thing is how we participate in shaping the future and not remain idle spectators, applauding at times and criticizing at other times. How can we engage while maintaining ethical virtues and societal values, which we declare and commit to upholding while building, without arrogance toward others, without violence, discrimination, hatred, or excommunication, with open-mindedness and love, seeking evidence, respecting differences, and embracing diversity of thoughts