Once upon a time, the conventional education system was at the heart of the nation's growth. We are now pursuing outcome-based education in its place. Only when we know the reason for such a transition, we can measure the outcome of the new system. In this post, I will discuss the major causes behind the traditional education system's demise.
In the traditional or conventional education system, the lecturers are the source of information and the students as recipients directly receive them. This was the teaching and learning practice for many decades on core subjects such as mathematics, science, and social studies and so on. The conventional education system's main components are teachers, students, and parents. In any case, none of them have had the option of having a significant impact on customary instruction. There are various of causes behind this.
Outcome of less learning: majority of the students are not knowledgeable on – what they study, why they study and how they study. Their main concern is passing the year examination and moving to the next year. By doing so, they are happy, parents are happy and the institution too.
Students-teacher ratio: there is a norm to maintain students-teacher ratio in a class. It's 20:1, which is not followed legitimately. The prevailing norm is generally 60:1, but official records would be different. When there are so many students, it's impossible to spare time to actually concentrate on each individual's skills and inadequacies, personalise the way of teaching to their requirements, or have the ability to urge each one specifically toward growth. Conversely, if a teacher teaches a class as per the ratio norms, the teacher could know the students' goals, strengths, and academic challenges besides their names and faces. This dichotomy is often the difference between a high and a low student-teacher ratio.
Mixed level of students: students from various family backgrounds, varied parents' educational levels, financial status, the society where they live & the living area (urban/sub-urban), full-time studying, part-time working and studying, skills, specialties, and hobbies may enrol in a course. Because of the mixed levels, the way of teaching should accommodate all of them; but in reality, it's not so. Hence, some students say, slow learners may find it troublesome in grasping the concept in one shot, and they can't move in parallel with other students. The traditional education system didn't focus on addressing this problem. The traditional educational system has not concentrated on resolving this issue in the past.
Employers' expectation: most of the students go for employment rather than having their own business and employ others. That means they end up with employers. But the employers' views are different on employing the graduates since their expectations are different rather than seeing their transcript. The employers look for their practical skills apart from their theoretical knowledge. But the traditional educational system emphasized more theoretical knowledge above skill-based education.
Quality of teachers: in the traditional education systems, most of the teachers ended up with this teaching profession because of not getting the jobs as they expected. Without a passion for teaching, they were doing the job with no involvement and dedication. They used to be on the verge of changing over to other opportunities. Besides, their salary level was not in bar with other employments.
Curriculum change: The curriculum of the traditional education didn't give any opportunity to the students to explore the significance of education and to experience its impact. Instead, it cultivated the habit of memorizing and reproducing during examinations to get a higher score and move on to the higher class. For instance, an electrical engineering graduate with first class was looking for his class notes when his family member was electrocuted before him instead of immediately putting off the main switch. The curriculum should be changed relevant to creative thinking, conceptualization, out-of-the-box thinking, and rational thinking.
Technological age: Students gathered under one roof at selected timings to be educated by a teacher in the traditional education system, which was based on inflexibility and uniform structure. Due to the vast technological changes, there are tremendous improvements in human life-styles, behaviours and needs, communication systems, transportation, energy supply and security, consumer markets and products, and industrial production tactics so on. To meet such changes and needs, the traditional education couldn't prepare the students and the curriculum became outdated. Rather than learning within four-walls and trees shadows, now the students have plenty of opportunities to learn through different indoor and outdoor sources either directly or virtually.
As outcome-based education (OBE) has been practiced at international level as an alternate solution for the traditional system; having known its deficiencies, we can watch at the outcome performance of the present system (OBE) and update it for our betterment.
The author has given a clear idea about the traditional study method and an indication of the steps needed to change it as society changes. We know that everything in this world is dynamic, so we have to keep ourselves ready for the times. If we do not have to maintain it according to the needs of society, industry, etc., then society will not be active. An education system is a basic place from where these are born. So the education system needs to be streamlined in such a way that they are able to provide the right things. Under the traditional system, there may be many problems, but even many prominent talents were born. In fact, I think at that period there were so many infrastructural problems due to lack of resources.
The author has given a clear idea about the traditional study method and an indication of the steps needed to change it as society changes. We know that everything in this world is dynamic, so we have to keep ourselves ready for the times. If we do not have to maintain it according to the needs of society, industry, etc., then society will not be active. An education system is a basic place from where these are born. So the education system needs to be streamlined in such a way that they are able to provide the right things. Under the traditional system, there may be many problems, but even many prominent talents were born. In fact, I think at that period there were so many infrastructural problems due to lack of resources.