Train students in soft skills to face life

Why do students leave school unprepared for their university studies or to even deal with life’s challenges after education? As societies grow and the demand for new skills increases, questions arise about whether educational systems are truly effective in paving the way for learners to achieve success in life, both professionally and socially. With the increasing need for societies to adopt more effective approaches to adapt to the rapid and unpredictable changes of life, success has become highly dependent on skills like decision-making, critical thinking, and problem-solving, as well as communication skills. It is crucial for the educational system to keep up with today’s fast-changing world and meet the needs of modern societies for adaptability and analytical abilities to handle crises and pressing issues effectively. This requires specialised training that enhances students’ creativity and prepares them to independently identify and solve any problems they encounter in their professional, family, or social lives. For these reasons, traditional approaches to education and instruction have come under fire in recent years. Traditional, teacher-centred approaches, which are prevalent in many educational institutions, despite slogans of change to student-centred approaches, have proven ineffective in preparing students to foster essential skills like critical thinking and problem-solving. By focusing solely on rote learning, these methods leave learners unprepared to face life’s challenges. This is often referred to as “spoon-feeding education,” where educators provide excessive instruction and help, leading students to become highly dependent. In contrast, active-learning teaching approaches focus on training students to master problem-solving skills. These skills help students in their university studies and continue to benefit them later in life by enabling them to apply the knowledge they gain to various academic, professional, and social contexts. Educational institutions must integrate interactive teaching methods, such as discussion-based education, student-oriented learning, collaborative learning, and active training. These techniques encourage learners to work productively and prepare them to deal with future challenges more effectively. It is evident that many of the problems currently affecting the world stem from people losing faith in the power of dialogue and lacking training in systematically addressing, analysing, and solving problems. An educational system that adopts discussion and problem-solving approaches is very likely to produce generations of open-minded graduates who will ultimately contribute to peace and harmony on this planet.