Promises of Prosperity: can young people trust education anymore?

Generations of young people have been told that school and credentials equal security and comfort. India’s youth have just called that a lie and forced a government resignation. And they won’t be the last.

35,000 jobs were advertised on the Indian State Railway: 10 million people applied.

140,000 Indian medical school places were available this year: 2 million people sat the entrance exam, then were told to resit when the government mishandled it. Twenty-one of those bright young people ended their own lives in the interim due to the stress (numbers vary by source, it could be higher).

40% of graduates in India under 25 are unemployed. Many more unemployed school leavers under 25 are not included in this figure.

The recent protests in India and the wider Cockroach movement are a symptom of a huge discontent with the opportunities for young people. There is rapidly growing disillusionment with the promises made to young people about how education is the key to prosperity, stability and a secure future. Parents working incredibly hard by Western standards to earn enough money to pay for the best possible education and credentials for their children is a cultural norm in India. They do so because they believe deeply that those credentials will improve the income and quality of life for their children. But is it true anymore?

India is the world’s most populous country, the world’s fastest growing economy - already 3rd largest in terms of purchasing power, and poised to become 3rd largest by GDP in the next couple of years. They have the 2nd largest workforce on the planet: the only reason they are not the largest is because the median age of the population is only 27. So the workforce can only expand rapidly as the 50% of Indians under this age grow up.

But this is not an Indian phenomenon. I quote some “size of India” figures to illustrate that the sheer scale of the under-25 population in a huge economy like India serves as an amplifier for what we are seeing in many countries: the promises of education are not being met, and more and more young people are at risk of becoming disenfranchised if we don’t act now on making the system fit, fair and future-ready. Young people for decades have been told: go to school every day, get your head down, study hard, do what you’re told, collect the certificates, and you will get the nice job with the nice salary and a nice pension. So when they do what they’re told, get the credentials and then can’t get a satisfying job - or in the case of 40% of Indian graduates, any job - they are right to question the people and system that promised them prosperity.

What we see now in India is the proverbial canary in the coal mine. I believe we have seen the same disenfranchisement on smaller scales in Europe, North America and China already, and I believe we will see much more in the next 10 years.

So why aren’t the promises of education holding up anymore?

Because the skills and knowledge being learned do not match the reality and demands of the world. Why not?

Because the curricula and pathways in schools do not prioritise, or in some cases even provide for, those skills and knowledge bases. Why not?

Because the system is designed around credential models that haven’t substantially changed for over a hundred years. Why haven’t they changed?

Because those overseeing education systems tend to keep school for our children looking like school did for them. Why?

Here it gets a bit more messy. Maybe because:

1. Every adult went to school, thus they see themselves as holding a higher level of expertise in education than they actually have. School heads are used to conversations with non-educator parents who, with good intentions, try to explain why their proposed solution to their child’s inconvenience, or preferred pedagogical practice is best and that doing something else shows the education professional’s lack of skill.

2. Nostalgia is a powerful force for decision-making, and increases as we get older: we choose based on memory of emotional peaks. Affect heuristics and availability biases influence school system designers. What we had feels warmer than going to the new.

3. School system designers, or at least those with the final sign-off, tend to be elected politicians who have more than one eye on their re-election campaign in 4 or 5 years. Cynically, they make decisions likely to get them re-elected (by appealing to the electorate’s nostalgia mechanisms), not those likely to improve the system. Optimistically, they try to make positive changes but can just run out of time before the next minister comes in, doesn’t fully grasp the details of the complex change, and starts again with their agenda.

What next?

Could a reform of the school system itself - not merely refining individual components like adding a new credential flavour, a new course or by digitising assessment - regress the growing disenfranchisement with the promises of education?

Does education need to be depoliticised - run by non-political, independent agencies that don’t face the same democratically-mandated churn of leadership?

Is India’s cockroach movement a warning sign to the whole world that young people are frustrated at the broken promises they are enduring?

There are options, including designing school systems from the ground up that prioritise skills and knowledge already being demanded from industry for the last 10 years plus in sources such as the WEF's Future Jobs Survey, or through designing mission-driven curricula that place the planet's and humanity's greatest needs and challenges foremost, with learning, teaching and assessment that all flows from these. But the political will and courage must be there to allow such changes to take hold. Change has long been a dirty word in education - but it doesn't have to be this way. I know dozens of inspirational, knowledgeable educators and educationalists with the desire, passion, skill, vision and will to do the hard yards - including many who are in roles actively trying to achieve it - but they too will run out of time, energy and/or motivation if the wider socio-political framework keeps saying 'no'.

All images generated by Gemini AI with a thematic prompt given by the author. All text is the author's own, with no AI input.