By Gopi Ganesalingam
A few days ago, I had a fascinating conversation with my good friend, Wai Hong, about the future of education. Reading his article inspired me to continue that conversation-not as a response, but as a reflection on something I have believed for many years, hence my The Human Advantage Series (in the Al world).
Education has never been more important.
But the “model of education” we continue to defend is no longer fit for purpose.
That may sound controversial, but perhaps it is time we call a spade a spade.
The industrial-age education system was brilliantly designed-for the Industrial Age. It produced workers for predictable jobs, stable industries and linear careers. It rewarded conformity, memorisation and standardisation because that was what the economy demanded.
That world has disappeared.
In truth, the cracks in our education system were already visible at the turn of the millennium. When Wai Hong entered university, the internet had already transformed access to knowledge – you can see his fact in his article. Globalisation was reshaping industries. Digital technologies were disrupting business models. The world had changed.
Education largely didn’t.
Artificial Intelligence did not make our education model obsolete. This is important to note.
Al simply exposed how obsolete it had already become.
For generations, schools and universities were the custodians of knowledge. Today, knowledge is abundant. Al can explain concepts, personalise learning, write software, analyse data and answer questions in seconds.
If information is now abundant, then education can no longer be defined by the transfer of information.
Its purpose must become the development of judgment, curiosity, ethics, resilience, creativity, critical thinking, empathy, articulation, leadership and the ability to solve problems that have no textbook answers.
These are deeply human capabilities.
Ironically, they have often been treated as secondary to examinations, grades and qualifications.
That mindset has to change.
There is another uncomfortable truth.
Somewhere along the way, education stopped being viewed primarily as a public good and, in many places, became a commercial product. We started selling degrees instead of cultivating thinkers, innovators and lifelong learners. Al is now forcing us to confront that uncomfortable reality.
Over the past few decades, parts of the education ecosystem have become increasingly
commercialised. Too often, success is measured by enrolment numbers, university rankings, campus expansion and tuition revenue rather than by whether graduates are equipped to thrive in a rapidly changing world.
Parents have been conditioned to believe that the more expensive the education, the more successful their children will become. Students have been led to believe that collecting qualifications is the safest. In many cases, they graduate carrying significant financial burdens, only to discover that the world of work has alreadychanged.
Universities have become increasingly dependent on filling seats. Students have become customers.
Degrees have become products. Rankings have become marketing tools.
None of this is inherently wrong. Universities need to be financially sustainable. But when commercial success begins to overshadow educational purpose, we have lost sight of why education exists in the first place.
Education should never be in the business of selling credentials. It should be in the business of developing human potential.
The economics of work has fundamentally shifted.
For decades, we promised our children that if they studied hard, earned a degree and secured a good job, they would enjoy a successful career.
That promise no longer reflects reality.
Many of today’s students will have multiple careers, work alongside Al every day, build portfolio careers, create businesses and reinvent themselves repeatedly over the next fifty years.
The future belongs to those who can learn, unlearn and relearn-continuously.
Learning is no longer preparation for work. Learning has become the work.
This means we should stop measuring educational success solely by university admissions, examination results or graduate employment statistics.
These are important milestones.
They are no longer the destination.
Instead, we should ask a far more important question:
Are we developing people who will still be relevant, adaptable and creating value twenty, thirty or even fifty years from now?
That, to me, is the true measure of education in the age of Al.
This is not just a challenge for schools and universities.
It is a challenge for governments, industry leaders, employers and parents.
We must stop asking how to prepare young people for their first job.
We must start asking how to prepare them for a lifetime of reinvention.
Throughout my own career-from finance to entrepreneurship, from multinational corporations to public policy and the digital economy—| have come to one conclusion; the people who thrive are rarely those who know the most. They are the ones who never stop learning.
Thank you, Wai Hong, for inspiring this reflection and, more importantly, for reigniting a conversation that is long overdue.
I hope this becomes more than a debate about Al or universities.
I hope it becomes a national conversation about how we redesign education—not for the next examination, but for the next generation.
Perhaps the question is no longer whether Al will disrupt education.
It already has.
The real question is this:
Will we have the courage to redesign education before another generation graduates for a world that no longer exists?
Because the future doesn’t belong to those with the best qualifications. It belongs to those with the greatest capacity to keep learning.
