Education through Experiences

-By Prithvish Uppal, Director Communications & Information Management, AIESEC India

Education, as published on wikipedia, in the general sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character, or physical ability of an individual. In its technical sense, education is the process by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills, and values from one generation to another. Two conclusive points from above – a) Education is formative. This means its an art as well as a science that shapes up your character through experiences or actions. b) Its influenced by society and the environment around you. This is the most beautiful definition of education I’ve come across, which dis-aligns from the stereotypical belief of education being confined to books, pens, notepads, diaries etc. It also means that education is an ever-lasting rather than an exhaustive process. No matter what age you are, life experiences still shape you up and contribute to your persona.

Public Education is reforming rapidly. The current system of education probably limits the extent or number of people who can be educated through conventional class based educational reforms. Factors like finances, manpower and state of technology are hugely influential when we consider who we can educate, who wants to be educated and how many can we educate. We are now seeing a paradigm shift in education influenced greatly by the current 21st century scenario. The biggest question educators are trying to answer is how can we educate our children to take their place in the economies of the 21st century. The challenge for us is to figure out how our economies will look like given that with the current economic scenario, we cant even figure out how it will look like at the end of the week. Another very relevant factor which is shaping up educational transformations is the cultural needs of society. How do we build a sense of cultural identity. I somehow feel that globalization has sort of bridged cultural barriers but the need for a distinct cultural identity still exists. These 2 factors : Cultural & Economic will be the defining trends that will distinguish the past format of education and the future. But first its important to ascertain what purpose is education really solving. Today, the world faces challenges and problems. We need young people to be empowered with education to be able to be equipped to solve them. Earlier, education was positioned differently. If you went to school, got a college degree, you would get a job. In the current scenario this is not certain. There are more educated people than the job available meaning that there is a demand and supply imbalance. Also, the current system of education marginalizes the things we feel are important to us. We need to shift from an academic & non-academic classification of students to more holistic understanding. The education system in its present format was designed and conceived for a totally different age, in the economic scenario of the industrial revolution. Before the 17th century, public education was rare. The thought of education paid for through taxes, for multiple people at one point and free at the time of delivery was a revolutionary idea. But it was for an age when such a system was needed.

The future of education clearly would depend on figuring out how it fits in the economic sense. Tools and tactics to spread it will constantly evolve and be innovated around. Lets go back to the definition I shared in the beginning. Society is a key influence on education. Constant Experiences are shaping up individuals.Compellingly enough, I have to say that education needs to be also influenced by experiences. A degree never can guarantee success. Its will depend upon who you are as a person. Who you are and what you become depends on what you have experienced.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have been a part of an organization like AIESEC for 4 years now. The organization is very driven through experiences that shape you up. Organizations today produce billions, but AIESEC produces billionaires and thats something I’ll always stand by and believe in. The power of conversations and learning environments that AIESEC creates is quite empowering, given that its a 60,000 member organization in 111 countries. Education through experiences is quite really the future and AIESEC is that platform which is enabling such a dimension.