Our world has changed very rapidly over the last 50 years. This era is sometimes referred to as the Digital Revolution or the Third Industrial Revolution. It is defined as the advancement of technology from mechanical and analog electronic technology to digital electronics. The Internet, phones, and computers are all examples of such technological innovations which have arisen from this Revolution and transformed almost every aspect of our lives. 

On the other hand, our current compulsory schooling model has remained relatively unchanged for over 150 years. At the dawn of the industrial age, as factories began to replace farm work, 19th-century schooling mimicked the working environment of the factories that most students would ultimately join. Emphasis needed to be put strongly on conformity and compliance, and subsequently, the students sat at desks in rows, while being made to obey their teachers. However, even now, when the majority of factory work has become obsolete, the same schooling system is still being implemented all around the world. 

This system has not seen many significant changes from the 19th century which can be extremely detrimental to students who have graduated and are looking for work. For example, it is not uncommon for students to feel a lack of autonomy in schools because almost every minute of their day is already planned for them. However, in today’s working world, jobs require you to manage your own time and make your own decisions, and therefore it can be very unsettling to change from education to employment.  

Thanks to the modern technology, the nature of work is almost unrecognizable from what it was just a few years ago. Perhaps modern education should take into consideration these changes as well as the readily accessible facts and figures and assess students on real-life problem solving, communication and analytical skills in order to adapt to the rapidly changing environment of the 21st Century.