Are you good enough?

This is a question every school student asks themselves at some point during their education. This is also a question asked by parents, by educational institutions, by governments and by international organisations.

Education in today’s world is to a big extent based on results. The grades of students have become more important than the learning process itself. School students are tested regularly, both for themselves and for the educational institutions and systems they are a part of. To make every student score high in a narrow set of subjects seems to be the aim in education, and measurements comparing the results and rank educational performances are used as methods of evaluating and later improving education.

What this focus leads to is competition becoming an accepted path in education everywhere in the world. This turn is linked to an individualised society, where you are no-one, unless you are good enough. Competition does not only occur between school students, but also between different educational institutions, different educational paths and different educational systems. This is a competition that is not based on the core of education, learning, but on the results of the school students pulled through the system. It does not take the learners themselves into consideration.

OBESSU believes the learning process should always be in focus of evaluating education. Many factors in a young person’s life affect his or her ability to score high in those final exams. By looking solely at the results one excludes all these different factors. In the end, what does the number or letter written on a paper actually mean?

Therefore, OBESSU will during November lead you through some of the trends that education is facing today. We will give you an insight to why ranking, competition and narrow measurements lead to exclusion of school students.