Is conventional education within brick walls overrated these days? Has conventional education become the privilege of only those who can afford to pay for it? A surge in the number of college graduates these days has dampened the value of a college education. Most graduates these days are not up to the mark despite the long years they spend at conventional educational institutions.

College these days comes intact with high tuition fees, room and board fees, and others exorbitant charges. Debt payments for those who obtained loans to study would usually last for years, if not decades. Students are paying a lot to be ‘educated’ and yet they cannot perform in life despite the long time spent to obtain a paper qualification.

Many fed up with the system are opting for jobs first and they later go for distance learning programmes to obtain a paper qualification. These are realistic citizens as they have the work experience and later go about to seek more knowledge to enhance their existing careers without paying for unnecessary expenses for conventional education.

This formula has contributed a lot to the global knowledge economy. The people in poor countries can now have access to education and knowledge through distance learning using the oceans of knowledge they get through the Internet.

Lifelong learning should be widely encouraged for working adults to augment the global knowledge economy. The seeking of knowledge can never be static nor can it only be acquired through conventional education. With the rapid progress in inventions and innovations in the private sector working environment, lifelong learning should become a non-terminable asset to further spur knowledge and the economy.

Hands-on experience can contribute to dynamic learning, experimenting and creating new things for the benefit of the economy. This in itself is an approach to education. Hence, there is a need for a change in our traditional perception of the learning approach. Progressive education should not necessarily be confined to the four walls of a college or university.

To add to theoretical and practical knowledge, those with work experience are taking up relevant courses at education providers either by studying full-time or through distance learning. This is to improve their professional as well as academic credentials. In a progressive educational system, this could facilitate society to pick up the pace in knowledge economy and make its workforce more productive while the expense to study is cost-effective.

Our conventional institutionalised learning has to change if the purpose of education is for a knowledge economy. We have to change the way the society perceives education. With the advent of the computer and the Internet, knowledge and learning cannot anymore be the monopoly of only the conventional institutionalised bodies. Learning can take place anywhere and in many other forms to cater for the various needs of our people.

This has to be recognised. Our traditional educational system, in which the teacher is the sole source of knowledge, is inadequate to equip the people to work and live in a knowledge economy. Knowledge has to be seen as a synthesis of theory and practice - a shared domain between academic and real life experience that can be attainable by all.

Recognition should be given to the work experience of individuals to enhance a knowledge economy as the society needs more people with hands-on experience to enhance productivity.

The Internet, for instance, has now opened up education for all who desire to perk up their knowledge and qualifications. The Internet has now become a guide to almost all sources of knowledge - both in the soft and hard skills. The teacher or a single university cannot beat the oceans of knowledge available on the Internet.

Traditional educationists thus cannot refuse to accept the new role and influence of the Internet, as it has helped society in many ways to acquire information and knowledge to make better the economy and literalising society.

Hence, throughout the world, online education or distance learning is becoming very effective these days and it is very cost-effective. It has helped people in poor and rich countries to have access to knowledge and education to generate erudite citizens who could contribute to the nation’s economy.

Those living in remote areas and poor countries can now have access to education provided by the learning centres in the developed world and this is a wonder indeed – a dream Bill Gates wants to accomplish after he observed the poor in Africa. The Internet has revolutionised education and the people should dare take this new challenge.

A lifelong learning approach must reach larger segments of the population including people with diverse learning needs with experience and who desire for more ‘savoir faire ’. It has to be competency driven rather than mere academic. It should be tailored to individual needs rather than general needs. Lifelong learning must ensure that experience, training and professional development are linked to spawn a knowledge economy.

Some of the competencies such as teamwork, problem-solving and stimulus for lifelong learning cannot be acquired in a conventional learning setting in which the teachers merely read aloud the facts to learners in a classroom and where learners seek to learn them only to pass examinations and obtain paper qualifications.

New curricula and new teaching methods are needed to cater for lifelong learning. Together, efforts need to be made to reach learners who cannot enrol in programmes at traditional institutions.

Providing people with the tools they need to function in knowledge economy requires the adoption of a new pedagogical model in bringing education to the people. Education providers should serve as facilitators as well as transmitters of knowledge and our education system should ensure that all people have access to learning opportunities over a lifetime.