Speak your mind: Are students ready for ‘real life’?

Similarly, most students can identify the different parts of the human brain but are they educated about mental illnesses? This makes one think - is the traditional education system really preparing youngsters for the ‘real world’? Gulf News readers debate

University prepared me for the workforce

From Ms Mariam Abu Bakr, Senior search engine optimisation executive based in Dubai

I’ve always been against the standard education system and protested against memorising as it generally has nothing to do with the tasks we face in our daily jobs.

However, the minute I started working in a field that is not even remotely related to what I had studied, I became extremely grateful to my university and my professors.

Yes, some courses weren’t very useful and didn’t advance my career.

However, the way we were pressured to learn new skills and excel at them in such a short period of time taught me that I am capable of being successful in any field that I set my mind to. For instance, my journalism degree taught me to always check for facts, look for credible sources and construct rational arguments in my everyday job. I am proud to say that formal education put me on that track and gave me all the tools necessary.

‘Real life’ skills need to added to the curriculum

From Ms Fozia Imran, Public school coordinator based in Sharjah

The basic dimensions of any educational program are its aims and attainments. The word ‘curriculum’, in its conventional usage, refers to “scope and sequence” of the subject matter, therefore, focuses on predetermined knowledge or a set of skills to fit developmental needs of the student.

Whereas, the ability to function successfully in life depends on many factors: Things as little as reading a manual, following a recipe, opening a bank account, paying taxes, negotiating at the time of purchase or a job interview. The question now is, how can schools equip students with these essential skills?

Firstly, nutrition and cooking need to be taught. This includes, what and how much to eat, reading labels and the importance of cooking your own food.

Secondly, students need to be trained for etiquette and traffic sense. Attitude towards traffic, other’s rights, safety, and discipline are some important concepts. Having them part of subjects like social studies or moral studies would help us develop youngsters with a sense of responsibility and care.

Lastly, students should be familiar with stress management, first aid, survival skills, mental health and dealing with natural disasters. We are often ignorant about children experiencing stress far more frequently than adults and this can have serious consequences. It is vital to maintaining good health, productivity, happiness, and success, as well as helping students cope with the serious risk of anxiety disorders and depression.

In situations of disaster, crisis or accidents, youngsters should be able to judge the situation and act - learn skills like swimming, riding, and ability to identify common poisonous plants and animals.

School failed to teach me about the corporate world

From Ms Nida Gulzar, Pupil based in Sharjah

I believe it is necessary to add more practical skills into the formal curriculum. In my experience I have learnt certain things at school that are of absolute no use. I know the Pythagorean Theorem but I do not know anything about taxes. I am clueless about bank accounts and health insurance. These are things I’d face in real life instead of needing to find the value of ‘x’. This has greatly hindered the progress of the current and past generations.

Moreover, school has failed to help me discover what career path is best suited to me. I would have liked to have learnt about a realistic idea of the workforce. This is just one example of the skills that are missing from the education system.

Many teenagers, in some countries more than others, drop out of school at a young age. The rates are high and it requires action to be taken. Oftentimes the reason is because students feel demotivated to continue their studies because of the lack of learning practical skills. We are asked to memorise for the sake of exams and grades but not for the purpose of personal development.

In addition, I think some things are taught just to increase the facility’s ratings that will in turn increase their profit.

It is time to wake up and fix our education system. It should rather focus on enhancing a person’s ability to face ‘real life’ situations.

The education system is producing clones

From Mr Adam Khattab, Sales executive based in Dubai

Currently, the academic concepts being taught at schools are inherently flawed. In terms of practicality in the real world, schools provide knowledge, when life requires wisdom. Schools don’t promote the augmented creativity needed for practical life. The education system does not provide the opportunity for students to explore various opportunities and areas of interest, for example, as deeply as they are taught standard mathematics. This limits their vision, inherently curious nature and personal passion because of the rigid system.

Instead of being taught important life skills like money management, interpersonal communication, setting goals, etc. students are being taught to absorb all the same information that is producing clones. This then leads to competition in the economy and a large portion of the population left under the shadows of unemployment because employers say: “We already have someone with the same knowledge who came in before you.”

I think that schools have become places where students are fed information instead of learning how to feed themselves.

Don’t get me wrong, education and curricular activities are just as important in life, especially at a growing stage. But there are ethics and morals that the system does not teach that I do believe should be implemented to raise a better generation.

Everybody knows what numbers are, but not everyone knows what an intrinsic or a market value of a company is and how it can impact the economy and possibly even their own wealth.