Quality education means enabling young minds to think and decide on their own, rather than just following what is being told to them. And yes, this can be taught. It’s more important to teach this than just teaching thoughts. Obviously, we should reuse the work that has been done in the past, but along with that we must teach individuals to analyse it and to think about anything presented to them from different perspectives.
We must teach them to have open mind and courage to accept mistakes and learn from them. Let’s teach how to apply what we learn – in schools – in real life and remove the content that is not relevant anymore. Remembering information is a limited requirement now, whereas learning application is still essential and will always remain so.
Education does not mean passing exams. The way we define an educated person in the current social setting is also a problem. Quality education must lead to open minds, better decisions when subjected to a situation and a better life in turn.
Schools need to be treated as laboratories for life, where one can carry out experiments on how to improve the way we live, then may it be science and technology, arts, learning from history, understanding our surroundings or something else. Teachers must ensure that these experiments are monitored and required expertise is provided to the young participants. Teachers must encourage students to make mistakes, because that’s when they learn to how to learn.