I believe we have a major problem in the West because our education system is broken. We can continue with something that was broadly designed in the 19th century to create workers for the industrial revolution, but that won't work. In China and India they can churn out graduates at 20% of our cost, so just being well educated isn't enough anymore. If we are going to compete in the new environment of globalisation and the new information based economy we have to do something different.
There are many aspects to where the system is going wrong. Let's mention two.
Alan Smithers, Director, Centre for Education and Employment Research, whilst at Liverpool University said in the Times, back on 10 May 2000: "Life opportunities are more closely related to degree results than ever before. Coupled with that, children are being examined more than ever. This loses sight of exams being an indicator of how we are progressing and becomes rather like continually pulling up a plant to see how well it is growing."
More testing and league tables aren't the answer.
Next, our education system stifles creativity. Young children are creative, and then we teach them inhibitions and the system steers them away from the creative arts, and towards more useful, practical subjects because they'll have a better chance of getting a job. Maybe that was true in the past, but now more than ever, we need the raw material of creativity to help us compete in the new world. Actually, Sir Ken Robinson explains this much better that I can. He is a brilliant presenter. This is his presentation on the topic a year ago at TED in California. It's well worth taking the time to listen, because the message is so important. You'll be rewarded with a few laughs, because Sir Ken could do "stand up" if he decides to move out of education:
The bottom line is that the kind of initiatives that Dennis talked about are fine, but we need to do something more fundamental. If Western businesses are to survive in the new world order, with the complexities of current competition, then we need more creative thought. That is the raw material which can be turned in to innovation, that can add value beyond simply getting the job done cheaper or faster. We need to start to become professional thinkers rather than gifted amateurs, and we need to teach thinking and creativity as part of the curriculum.