The government does not need to spend more on education, instead the country needs to adopt a 21st century education system writes Jamie McIntyre.

The Government mistakenly thinks that the solution to improving the Australian education system is the Gonski report which basically involves throwing more money on education. However, this is a complete waste of taxpayers’ money.

Ever since the current government has come into power, the education budget has risen by 40 per cent. Yet, the standard of education is simply going backwards despite billions of dollars being spent on it.

Throwing more money at a flawed and inept education system is simply wasting billions.

The education system doesn’t need more money thrown at it; it needs the scrapping of the 19th century industrialisation era’s outdated and badly designed education system. The need is to implement a modern day 21st century education system -something I have been lobbying for 15 years now.

A modern day 21st century education system can not only deliver results tenfold to the current one, but with the use of modern day technology it can be delivered for a fraction of the cost.

For instance, many classes can be delivered via DVD or videos downloaded online.

Work sheets for lessons and tests can be downloaded.

These are all valuable resources to help teachers provide a better quality education and improve student learning.

Last year when I spoke to Apple co founder Steve Wozniak, who is also passionate about transforming the world’s education system he said with breakthrough technology, computers can be trained to provide a teaching role to students, one-on-one with personalised curriculum.

Look at current technology, like “Siri” on the iPhone, which can answer most questions. Using technology like this to turn computers into one on one personal teachers isn’t so far off.

And this would decrease the cost of delivering education because computers cost less than a sole teacher’s yearly wage.

In fact this entire country, not just the education system can be run for a fraction of its current expenditure and deliver a tenfold increase on the level of services.

Unfortunately, when socialist bureaucrats and unionists are allowed to get into power and get their hands on the till without the skills of financial management or an honest agenda they focus primarily on political power as opposed to economic results; we can’t expect a lot more.

Australians deserve better value for the taxes they pay.

We need to learn our lessons and not allow poor economic managers ever into power again. We also need to adopt a new modern 21st century political system not just a new 21st century education system.

These two changes can truly make Australia the best country in the world and a leader in education and political reform.

We deserve better and can have better, therefore, why should we settle for a second rate education and political system with second rate education system and political leaders?

It is time for a change- a change that involves proper training for teachers. They are effectively educators and hold one of the most critical roles in society and need more support.

Plus, there should be performance bonuses to reward top teachers and reviews to eliminate the low performing ones.

Teachers need to be trained in public speaking; NLP, psychology and they should know how to teach accelerated learning and how to engage an audience passionately and teach an education system for today’s world.

Moreover, teachers should be able to inspire and influence students positively in order to have them truly motivated so that those students go on to add massive value to the society.

The curriculum for a modern day 21st century education needs to include areas such as:

– Life skills

– Financial literacy

– Emotional Intelligence

– Health

– Social and relationship skills

Generalist skills that can be used in almost all vocations not just specialised skills:

– Creative problem solving skills

– Negotiation skills

– Communication skills

– Marketing skills

– Entrepreneurial skills

A results based education system working closely with parents and employers will deliver students that are ready, willing and able to advance our society to higher levels with their passion, dedication, intelligence and emotional fulfilment.

I have designed below a framework to change the world’s current education system into a 21st Century Education System:

Result Outcomes

Create, design, and implement a modern day, global 21st Century Education System, replacing the out-dated 19th Century industrialised education system.

Why

To be the catalyst for worldwide, systematic change. To empower, inspire, and educate billions of youth globally, to reshape the entire planet positively.

Action

1. Form a Global Think Tank of leading business and thought leaders to both support the initiative and contribute ideas and resources.

The following business and thought leaders are currently being invited to join the Global Education Initiative to help change the world:

– Sir Richard Branson

Founder of the Virgin Group

– Anthony Robbins

Self-help author and motivational speaker

– Robert Kiyosaki

Financial literacy activist and author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad

– Tim Ferriss

Entrepreneur and author of The 4-Hour Workweek

– Sir Ken Robinson

Author and international advisor on education in the arts

– Oprah Winfrey

Media proprietor, talk show host, and philanthropist

– Steve Wozniak

Co-Founder of Apple

– Bill Gates

Co-Founder of Microsoft

– Arnold Schwarzenegger

Actor, Bodybuilder, politician and businessman

2. Develop a non-profit foundation to help create, design, and implement a new 21st Century Education System.

3. Develop a website providing access to resources for Governments, teachers, and educators worldwide to immediately improve the current education system.

4. Convene an annual gathering of the 21st Century Global Education Think Tank leaders plus a national one for Australian leaders.

Challenges

Funding the creation, design and implementation of a new, modern day 21st Century Education System.

Actually, funding is not likely to be an issue for schools and Governments, because a new, modern day education utilising existing technology can increase the quality and efficiency of the current education model.

This will reduce costs that can then be redistributed to resources, ensuring a modernised education system is implemented effectively.

Class size debate

A non-issue.

The debate should not be about what the optimum class size is…

It’s about the quality of the education being taught, and the ability of the educator to intimately reach the student through passion, skill, and power of influence.

For example: why can Anthony Robbins (one of the world’s leading educators) intimately influence and impact 5,000 people in a room, while a teacher with no public speaking training struggles to teach 25 students in a classroom?

How to implement a new 21st Century education system

It’s suggested both a grass roots and top level down approach be used.

So providing educational resources and tools for teachers worldwide to use, along with lobbying and assisting National Education and State Education Ministers to work with the Think Tank to replace the current, out-dated, largely ineffective education model and curriculum.

Super Classes once a month

It’s unrealistic to expect a high school student, who spent 3 years training at university, to be able to teach with any level of real life experience.

Also these days a majority of teachers are female, contributing to a loss of male role models and increase in non-competitive philosophies.

Generally speaking, males respond to challenges and competition, whereas females tend to respond more to collaboration and working together.

An improved education system could have monthly Super Classes where regional schools attend a large auditorium for one or two days to learn from leading edge educators, business leaders, and other thought leaders.

Some speakers would appear live and some via video.

This enables students to access a higher standard of educator and education, and increase the sadly missing, real life experience based education.

It creates synergy, with students mixing with various schools. And enables a variety of topics to be taught, making learning more fun and varied.

It can also be delivered at low cost. Super Classes can occur in 3,000 to 5,000 capacity auditoriums.

Plus many successful educators and leaders would happily donate their time.

The ‘one size fits all’ model does not work . So, the “one curriculum fits all” model needs to be changed to “choice of self-selected curriculum”.

“One size fits all” is a critical complaint in the current education system. And a major reason many students lose interest, and fail to learn.

And it doesn’t accommodate students who have different learning abilities, like Sir Richard Branson had for example.

He was dyslexic at school and was seen as a slow learner, or poorer student, when in reality he was a fast learner with incredibly resourceful traits that led to his business success with Virgin.

When Steve Jobs went to college he complained that he had to attend pre-set classes, which were not what he wanted to do, and simply refused to attend.

How many leading entrepreneurs have dropped out of school and university or college because of the lack a supporting learning environment that encouraged passionate, rewarding learning…and then gone on to be hugely successful?

As Mark Twain famously said, “Never let schooling get in the way of a good education.”

A new, modern 21st Century Education System designed for today’s world, based on empowerment and teaching students how to get a PhD in results versus rarely used theory, could revolutionise the world more than any other single action.

The world demands results when students leave school so let’s prepare them well with a result based education designed for today’s rapidly changing world.

Read More Jamie McIntyre articles on http://www.21stcenturynews.com.au/

Jamie McIntyre is the founder of the 21st Century Group of companies and CEO of 21st Century Education. He is also bestselling author, successful entrepreneur, investor, sought after success coach, internationally renowned speaker and world-leading educator. www.jamiemcintyre.com

Jamie McIntyre is the founder of the 21st Century Group of companies and CEO of 21st Century Education. He is also bestselling author, successful entrepreneur, investor, sought after success coach, internationally renowned speaker and world-leading educator. http://www.jamiemcintyre.com

Author Bio: Jamie McIntyre is the founder of the 21st Century Group of companies and CEO of 21st Century Education. He is also bestselling author, successful entrepreneur, investor, sought after success coach, internationally renowned speaker and world-leading educator. www.jamiemcintyre.com

Category: Education
Keywords: 21st century education,Branson,framework,gonski,Jamie McIntyre,richard,spending,steve,wozniak