Page 36 - EW December 2020

Education System for the “Knowledge Age”

“When the digital transformation is done right, it’s like a caterpillar

turning into a butterfly, but when done wrong, all you have is a really

fast caterpillar”
At the turn of the century and beginning of a new millennium
our global society was struggling with the uncertainty and
predicted collapse of systems due to the Y2K bug. Ever
since our social and professional paradigms have changed.
Deep research has shown that we have moved from the
“Industrial Age” into a new age called the “Knowledge Age”.

As we prepare to charter the unfamiliar terrain that lies
ahead, we need a new kind of enabling device, very different
competencies and a whole new sense of direction.
New times call for new organizations that can handle
uncertainties of the knowledge age of the future, rather than
the industrial age of the past.

The road ahead is leading to the appreciation that economic
wealth will not be based on land, money, labour or raw
materials but on intellectual capital.

While this may be cause for anxiety to industrial societies
a period of transition when the old order gives way to the
new, yet there is also a sense of tremendous adventure and
opportunity for all.

The presently prevalent systems of schooling practices have
been generated to address the needs of the Industrial Age.
The educational transactions of today need to be inclusive
of the emerging appreciations of knowledge, as an economic
component.

3 6 EDUCATIONWORLD DECEMBER 2020