Steps Towards A Better Education

Since the inception of the 17th of February Revolution there have been several talks over the crisis of education during the brutal and ignorant rule of Muammar Gaddafi and how he deprived people of their basic right and that is, of course, a good education that prepares them for tomorrow’s challenges. So far we have talked about our desire to get a better education for ourselves and the next generations. Yet, we haven’t put a clear vision of what we want to achieve in this specific area. One could ask the next questions. How do we define the concept of a good education and what is the purpose of it? What kind of educational system needed in Libya today? And what do we want to accomplish eventually?
To answer these legitimate questions, there is no shame to look around and learn from other nations how they define a good education, and what components or elements they have comprised a good education of. For our argument we are going to refer to the education in the United States of America. Although the USA does not come first for its educational excellence, it has always been known for its diversity and flexibility in the educational process. We all agree that education should remain funded by the government until the age of eighteen, however; being provided by the public sector does not mean tolerating with low standards of teaching like the ones we have witnessed over the last forty two years in Libya. In addition, before embarking on the mission of reforming our education, there is a more significant mission that needs to be accomplished and that is a change of the people’s perspective on education. Over the last four decades people thought that the only reason for going to school and college was to get a job at the end of the process. The idea of educating themselves and polishing up their skills and talents was never considered. This is why there is this strong association in the minds of students between the definition of success and the passing of exams, but once these exams are passed, the students cannot remember the information they have been taught over an extensive period of time. People now should think of education as a process of enlightening themselves first. In other words, people ought to seek education solely for the sake of education.
We want to establish a new educational system with high standards. This system has to enjoy the right ingredients for success and they are a lucid educational mission, efficient and responsible educational board officials, excellent curricula and competent teachers. These four, together, will provide a secular education to all Libyan students, ‘‘secular’’ in the sense that extremism and Alqaeda-inspired ideology won’t find their way into the mind of our offspring. Moreover; this system will be founded on the principle of awarding the higher achievers after passing standardized tests like the SAT (Scholarly Aptitude Test) and GRE (Graduate Record Test) ,which are used in the USA to enroll in undergraduate and graduate studies, and giving support to the lower achievers and letting them know that they have what it takes to make it, but they just don’t know how to utilize their god-given abilities. Moving to the Libyan National Curricula, the educational experts have to avoid designing textbooks full of redundancy, they have to design textbooks according to the ability of the students at a certain age. More importantly, these textbooks have to be up-to-date with what is going on in the field of science, technology and other areas to provide students with the knowledge of universal concepts and issues. Libyan students have always been sneered at because of their ignorance of general topics that peers of other nations know about, therefore; more attention has to be directed towards building up the personalities and skills of the students by providing courses on reading literacy, oratory, critical thinking, real-life problem solving, public speeches and debates to exercise their rights such as, the freedom of expression at early ages. However; these textbooks, no matter how many times being updated, mustn't be associated with any ‘‘current’’ politician or political party. Like in the USA, our educational system has to be comprised of core courses and electives. Core courses include math, science, literature, second languages (English and French), social Science, history (teaching the history of Libya and the world). Electives may include fine arts, physical education, computers, visual arts and health courses. In addition, extracurricular activities ought to be part of any school program. These activities may vary from athletics competitions, music clubs, and chess clubs to community services.
In-service training for teachers is another issue that has be taken care of. Teachers must be trained periodically during their ongoing work even when they have acquired enough experience. The purpose of this training is to make teachers aware of the new methods of teaching which are used in other countries like the USA. Teachers should be acquainted with terms like ‘‘interactive teaching and learning’’ in which the information is provided by both the teacher and his students, and where the teacher has to show the students how to be independent learners by building up their research skills via self-study, library-and-internet-based assignments and group discussions. First and last, Libyan teachers have to be trained on how to deal with school students in a way that strengthens the relationship between the teachers and their students, a relationship which is based on mutual respect, trust and cooperation, not on violence and intimidation, therefore; corporal punishment at our schools should be frowned upon. No teacher should be allowed to hit or torture a student no matter how unacceptable the behavior of the student might be, for we want our students to feel that they are at school, not inside a penitentiary or a correction center.
Maad M. El-gali