Education is at the centre of our conversation these days when it comes to the quality of graduates we are producing for the future workforce.
At the grassroot level, we have great plans to revamp our education system, as seen in the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025, prepared by the Ministry of Education Malaysia.
The blueprint is set to guide our approach in the way students learn and in the way we train our educators, as well as how the ministry lays out a process for that transformation to happen. It’s an ambitious goal, especially to equip our students holistically to get them ready for a challenging future of Industry 4.0 and digitalisation.
We are not alone
According to The Microsoft Asia Digital Transformation Study, while most education leaders (87%) are aware of the urgent need to transform digitally, the actual transformation journey with full digital strategy in place for most educational institutions in Asia is still at its infancy.
Raghav is a thought leader on constructing optimal learning environments. He has been championing the cause of optimal utilisation of technology in the classrooms, and yet, stresses the core importance of real human connection when it comes to learning among school-going children.
Alternatively, for full interview, click play to listen to the podcast (in three parts):
Part 1: Education in challenging times
Part 2: The ‘new’ classroom and our belief systems
Part 3: Nuggets of wisdom, etc
Insights
Here are some key learnings from the interview:
In general, Asians are still bound to certain expectations that academics is pretty much a measure of success for a child. It takes success stories of children who made it good despite academic challenges to break that mindset.
We can never replace the role of human educators with robots. Educators still need to get their hands dirty in engaging with students in their progress. Technology is just an enabler to supplement their experiential learning in an environment.
The choice is in our hands – we either light up the spark in students, or we put out the spark in them. In the latter, we continue the cycle of boxing them to society’s expectations of ‘success’.
Glimmer of hope
Every stakeholder has a part to play in elevating and transforming our education system, for the sake of the future of our next generation that will take up the mantle of leadership in our nation to the next level.
Although we at Leaderonomics may not be the ones playing in the technology field in education, we are actively playing our part in building the right foundation to realise their true potential through our Leaderonomics Youth initiatives such as LEAD clubs in schools and DIODE camps.
How? By equipping students with the right future-ready skills such as communication, leadership and creative thinking capabilities – skills that are critical in shaping a better tomorrow – Industry 4.0 and beyond.
Youth from the SPARK Leadership Programme having a blast at Jumpstreet Asia trampoline park last December 2017. Pic courtesy of Leaderonomics Youth.
Lay Hsuan was part of the content curation team for Leaderonomics.com, playing the role of a content gatekeeper as well as ensuring the integrity of stories that came in. She was an occasional writer for the team and was previously the caretaker for Leaderonomics social media channels. She is still happiest when you leave comments on the website, or subscribe to Leader's Digest, or share Leaderonomics content on social media.
By Jacob Morgan. Discover the real deal about authentic leadership and how it intertwines with leading vulnerably in the workplace. Let's break it down!
We have seen organisations face problems when someone new comes to fill in a leadership position. Why does this happen?
International speaker, trainer and consultant Scott Deming says that is because people are often focused on being disruptive, creating change simply for the sake of changing – which isn’t going to work.