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The tragedy of education that’s thin on producing top problem-solvers

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Informal and formal education help in acquiring information, knowledge and skill. FILE PHOTO | SHUTTERSTOCK

A society collapses when its institutions become dysfunctional. Key among those institutions is education, whose failure to grasp society’s architecture accelerates degeneration.

Informal and formal education help in acquiring information, knowledge and skill. But its lustre is such an indubitable disposition that it ought not to be simplified in the quest to define its performance.

Education births creators who see beyond the narrow lens of uniformity. And through creativity, we respond to social phenomena well.

We don’t have to limit ourselves to the formal schooling that decouples our flexible and practical contexts. It’s not in question that the practical aspects of our indigenous education systems were lost in these new approaches.

Therefore, an education system that restores our lost identity which happened along the way of integrating our societies with decontextualised theories should guide reforms.

That kind of education enhances a proper understanding of public affairs and creates not just solutions but threads of navigating those solutions.

A proper reading of society begins by conceptualising its realities and configuring how they affect lives. When lived experiences and realities escape our knowledge, then our education is not delivered.

Our lived experiences are the shareable actions and performances that, at face value, seem meaningless, but which significantly shape lives.

These include practices, activities, philosophies, and networks that influence our potential to co-exist.

Therefore, the value of our education cannot be reduced to landing a job, but should be evaluated on, among other things, one’s ability to remain competitive.

Through education, we measure what is required of us. This includes our ability to competently perform tasks, respond to crises or adequately measure the challenges befalling us.

The failure to sensitively respond to societal challenges is illustrative of our love for conformity as opposed to divergence, meaning we are creating crises that we cannot resolve.

It would be rewarding if through our education we can create crises that we are able to resolve. That way, we can be sure that we are breeding a society of innovators. A society of problem–solvers.