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Skills, education and learning needed to survive

Ben Silva

This article compliments the recent article on education by Shenali Waduge that was published in the Lankaweb. I wrote this article as development of education and skills are essential for our survival. I shall be thankful if this article is published. Thank you for publishing my previous articles

One of the aims of education should be about teaching young people about the world around them and also enable them to develop skills to survive in a highly competitive global economy. If you want to learn something properly, you need to “do” as opposed to “watch” or “listen”. Practice and Reflection is also needed to retain acquired skill or knowledge. People also have different learning styles:

Visual Learners,
Auditory Learners,
Kinesthetic Learners.

Source of Information

The internet is a good source of information. All Sri Lankan students should have facilities to access the internet. This is perhaps a target for the education department. Sri Lanka's overseas friends can help, even in a small scale, by supplying a computer to a remote village school. Other sources of learning are distance learning and use of the TV, CDs etc.

If our students develop common skills, we should have no difficulty in becoming self reliant on defence.

Education should bring about a change of attitude and develop young people's minds for the challenges they will face in the 21st century. Current generation of young persons need to develop skills to meet the challenges of globalisation, technology and conflict. Education should offer challenge and enjoyment, and relevance.

It has to be recognised that knowledge has a limited shelf life. The key thing is to make practical use of knowledge and information and not merely learn facts. Our students and engineers may have the opportunity to put theory into practice, if we have our own defence industry.

As illustrated by Prof. Gardner, young persons need to develop five minds.

These are: disciplined (so that they acquire a real mastery of one or more disciplines); synthesised (so that they are able to weigh up the huge amounts of information available, and sift it to assess what is of value); creative (so that they can think "out of the box" and be innovative); respectful (a notion which goes beyond mere tolerance, but which will be necessary in such a diverse world); and ethical (which involves a preparedness to act ethically for the greater good of others, even where that may go against one's self-interest). Ref. Prof. Gardner

One of Teachers' jobs, is to educate young people to meet the demands of future. The biggest challenge facing teachers is to be sufficiently creative to give their pupils the skills to meet future challenges. Our young persons could be given an insight to the threats faced by Sri Lanka, which could include terrorism, global warming etc.

Children also have to be taught a clear set of values.

Values

A value is a belief, a mission, or a philosophy that is meaningful. Whether we are consciously aware of them or not, every individual has a core set of personal values. Values can range from the commonplace, such as the belief in hard work and punctuality, to the more psychological, such as self-reliance, concern for others, and harmony of purpose.

Some Common personal values that can be promoted in education are:

Honesty
Integrity
Justice and fairness
Truthful
Tolerance
Concern for others
Self-reliance
Rule of law
Hard work
Accomplishment,
Success
Commitment
Timeliness

Persons with a good set of core values should be able to live in harmony and in peace, what ever the race or ethnicity.

In an age of lifelong learning, the most important duties of schools are to give people the skills to continue learning beyond school and the motivation to do so - not to try and give all the skills that would see them through to later life. The reason for this is that we live in a changing and uncertain world.

Also Sri Lankans need skills to survive in a highly competitive global economy. Some important skills and knowledge are:

Problem solving and thinking skills – essential to survive

Information seeking and processing - essential to survive

IT - Useful tool in communication and education.

Design – useful innovative skill

Knowledge of economics – understand why the price of commodities go up or down, Understand market forces

Business and entrepreneurial skills - To start up your own business looking at needs in the market, without depending on anyone to give you a job

e-media skills - essential to survive in a fast changing world

Communication - essential to survive in a fast changing world

Respect for others and their beliefs – essential for harmonious living in a multicultural setting

Knowledge of the external environment – To be able to take steps before external factors can affect you adversely. For example a knowledge of Tamil Nadu politics or Indian Politics

Knowledge of factors affecting environment – essential for sustainable development

In general, the skills are known as Common skills and details are given in the references.

Common skills in a short format are given below.

Applying Design and Creativity
Apply a range of skills and techniques to develop a variety of ideas in the creation of new/modified products, services or situations, Use a range of thought processes

Applying Numeracy
Apply numerical skills and techniques

Applying Technology
Use a range of technological equipment and systems

Communicating
Seek, analyse, utilise and evaluate information from a wide range of sources, present information in a visual form as an alternative to the written .

Managing and Developing Self
Recognise, understand and meet their own responsibilities within a range of personal and work roles, plan and manage their own personal and career development with an understanding of the current and future requirements

Managing Tasks and Solving Problems
Gather and use information from a variety of sources to complete relevant tasks, independently identify and initiate tasks or situations which require information, carry out a variety of tasks in an organised way to enhance the process of completing tasks more efficiently and effectively, undertake tasks in a structured and planned way to ensure their successful completion, utilise a range of techniques to solve problems effectively to determined timescales

Working with and Relating to Others
Treat others values, beliefs and opinions with respect, Relate to and interact effectively with individuals and groups, Work effectively as a member of a team

I hope that more writers would contribute on self reliance on defence and IESL would take some initiatives so that Sri Lanka becomes self reliant on defence. For our survival a knowledge of history is also important. Our golden era during Anuradapura and Pollonanuwa kingdoms were destroyed by invasions by South Indians, including Tamil war lords. Decline of the Sinhala civilisations were caused by invasions from abroad. If we are not to end up the same way as Aztecs, then we have to pay attention to self reliance on defence and attention to education. No offence is intended on our Tamil brothers and sisters, but we need to protect our selves from racists such as Prabakaran and Hitler. I have to acknowledge the contributions made to Sri Lanka by many Tamils and others.

Acknowledgements

Keir Bloomer
Prof. Hudson McLean

References

http://www.open.ac.uk/skillsforstudy/critical-thinking.php

http://www.support4learning.org.uk/education/revision_and_study_skills_.cfm

http://www.gurusoftware.com/GuruNet/Personal/Topics/Values.htm

http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~hnd-comp/skills.html

http://www.ldpride.net/learningstyles.MI.htm#Learning%20Styles%20Explained

Ben Silva

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