education factories

Another quote from the book Future Shock. Here Alvin Toffler is discussing how the (western) educational system of his day (early 70s) was inadequate in preparing young people for the future. He argues that the school system was a hang-over from the industrial era, and the coming era of "super-industrialism", as he called it, demanded a radically different model.

"...the whole idea of assembling masses of students (raw material) to be processed by teachers (workers) in a centrally located school (factory) was a stroke of industrial genius. The administrative hierarchy of education, as it grew up, followed the model of the industrial bureaucracy. The very organization of knowledge into permanent disciplines was grounded on industrial assumptions. Children marched from place to place and sat in assigned stations. Bells rang to announce changes in time.

"The inner life of the school thus became an anticipatory mirror , a perfect introduction to industrial society. The most criticized feature of education today - the regimentation, lack of individualization, the rigid system of seating, grouping, grading and marking, the authoritarian role of the teacher - are precisely those that made mass public education so effective an instrument of adaptation for its place and time.

"Young people passing through this educational machine merged into an adult society whose structure of jobs, roles and institutions resembled that of the school itself. The school-child did not simply learn facts that he could use later on; he lived, as well as learned, a way of life modeled after the one he'd lead in the future.

I don't know about you, but this quite accurately describes the schools and college I passed through back in India in the 80s and 90s. And I am not sure things are much different now, unfortunately.

The only practical flavor of education you could get there was what's called "vocational education", which was a stream parallel to higher secondary and college (the "academic stream"). The kind of fields available in those "polytechnics" and "industrial training institutes" were pretty limited, and rather backwards-looking in terms of scope.

To be honest about it, there was a definite classism between the two streams: you'd consider the vocational stream only if you were not "good enough" for the academic stream.

Looking back, that doesn't make any sense. Because of that social attitude, a vast majority of us went through the academic stream, while a tiny minority went through the vocational stream; while you'd expect a developing economy to require the reverse. However, it has turned out to be a serendipitous blessing for India, thanks to the coming of the "service economy", information technology and globalization.

Back to Toffler's point, how can the school or college of today, prepare a student for the future? Today, it's clear that, "16 years of classroom education, and I am set for life" approach is going to land someone in big trouble. Rapid obsolescence of knowledge and skills is not just a phenomenon of the high-tech industry alone.

Of course, the best thing to teach someone is the ability to learn. Beyond that, what should the educational system prepare the young people for: an era of mind-boggling technological revolution, hyper-choice, super-specialization, long life expectancies, a planet-sized "cultural melting pot", accelerating generation gaps, sustainable development? The funny thing is, none of these is really futuristic. All these are just extensions of the trends we already see today. Yet, our educational systems don't seem to ready at all.

Have we really moved beyond the factory systems yet?