Is the education systems really educating us?

Education is very important in society, I’m not saying that it isn’t however I believe that in school there are a few subjects we learn that will most likely never use in our lives, and the subjects that we will actually need in life, are never thought to us.

Let’s start out by seeing what my country Malta usually offers as subjects in secondary school (ages 11-16). So, we learn Math, English and Maltese which are fair enough as they the bases of education. We move on to Religion, the usefulness of this subject is debatable. On one hand we can see how the religion came about and how we should live in society, but don’t tell me that I will need to know all the books of the bible, and who did what. If I want to know that I will go to church. We also study Literature both in Maltese and English. I get the idea that reading help you improve your creativity and teaches you a lot of the language, however is it really necessary to learn 2 books and I don’t know how many poems by heart and their meaning behind it. Isn’t it enough to read at school and perhaps discuss the novels and poems without being tested on them. Is it always necessary to have multiple exams, increasing stress levels in students, for what, getting a grade and then forgetting everything you learned the day after the exam? Why don’t they teach us more important things in life that we will actually use, like how to cook, how to pay taxes, how to get a job, HOW TO SAVE A LIFE. All this is either to be learned through trial and error or go pay for a separate corse. If I see someone dying, in need of CPR, I’d be better off telling him the last poem they made us learn in school, rather than saving his life. Is this the kind of education we should be getting?

In my country after secondary you move on to post secondary where you can actually choose all the subjects you want to pursue on, and SOK. SOK is short for systems of knowledge, it is this subject where we learn about Democracy, Science and Technology, Environment and Art. Not so bad you may say, well we don’t just learn the fundamentals like what types of government systems are present today, but also where they originated from. I just want to know how to vote, or how we can improve our government system, not how many years ago a certain person came up with the idea to introduce democracy. And art, I get that we should learn how to appreciate art, but why do we need to learn every painting from every era, who painted it and what it means. The only time that will come in handy is if I go to a museum and see that painting which will probably have written on it everything that you learnt by heart, and probably remember non of.

Now I moved on the University and wise me thought that in University you only learn what you need for that certain profession, but no. I’m studying accounting and yet I have to study sociology. I guess it kind of relates to how people behave in a society, but how does this relate to me knowing about Weber and Durkheim, are they going to be useful when I run a company? Probably not.

It really frustrates me that we are put all this pressure and stress on passing our exams and getting good grades just for the sake of having certificates, having a piece of paper showing that I got an A in religion, when I’m applying for a job in Accounting and yet never practice with an actual accountant at University. If I don’t go out and find someone to train me in the real world, I will go out of university just knowing the theory and not how to apply it in real life. It crazy to think that we learn so much, but yet we know so little. We are just learning subjects, not how to apply them in life. I think that in schools we should be teaching kids how to apply the subjects we are learning in life, how to self-defence, how to live on your own, how to get the job you want, how to save someone’s life, how to vote and how to eventually live life.

I know most of you will not agree with this rant, I am up for discussion in the comments, this comes from a University student concerned about not knowing things that I should have been thought and yet I know that the first book in the bible is Genesis. I appreciate your opinions about this topic, every idea is welcome even if goes against everything I just said. This is my opinion from my experiences and I hope I don’t offend anyone.