School subjects require greater relevance to the real world, education chief says

Dino Varkey, chief executive officer of Gems Education, said educators have been slow to offer the kind of studies that will peak children’s interest in science and prepare them for the future.

DUBAI // Schools need to make the subjects they teach more relevant to the world of work if they are to prepare pupils properly, said the head of a major education group.

Dino Varkey, chief executive officer of Gems Education, said educators are slow to offer the kind of studies that will pique children’s interest in science and prepare them for the future.

His comments came as Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, this month said the country needs a generation of engineers and scientists.

Last week, Professor Nagi Wakim, the dean of UAE University’s college of graduate studies, said the institution had to start offering degrees such as nuclear physics and astrophysics, rather than classical subjects like maths and physics, as the world of work evolves.

“The rate of change in education is not moving at a pace that is fast enough to keep pace with the needs of our future world,” he said at last week’s Global Skills and Education Forum in Dubai.

“The world around is moving at an unprecedented rate, while education is not, and that is the true challenge that education faces today.”

Most schools across the world teach the same subjects and curriculums that were put in place decades ago, he said.

“What we are teaching our children today is relevant for yesterday and barely relevant for today, while what we should be teaching them is what is relevant for tomorrow. The idea that schools should have age and stage-based progression is dated.”

Issues facing the world such as water scarcity, access to education for all, global warming and climate change should make up the core curriculum with other subjects feeding in, rather than the other way around.

“At Gems, we have developed a high school programme based on 10 global challenges like climate change, but the sad thing is that it is a 10-week programme.

“These should be the core curriculum.

“The big test will come when we can get accrediting bodies and curriculum agencies to completely change the way they look at curriculum and the way it is delivered. While it has not happened yet, the pressure on it to change is rather unstoppable.”

Armando Persico, one of the top 40 finalists of the Global Teacher Prize, held in Dubai last week, said that he teaches entrepreneurship as a core subject. “Dubai is a smart city, and if they want to remain one, they need to approach education in a smart way to fit job models for the future,” Mr Persico said.

“Robots will change the world in 10 years and to deal with that change in the job market, any smart country needs to change how it looks at education.”

British teacher Gullrukh Rafiq, who teaches students aged eight to nine in Emirates International School – Meadows, agreed.

“Environment, sustainability, social media, current affairs, philanthropy, these are important things we need to teach our students in the curriculum but with it, testing needs to be updated too,” she said.