Is Formal Education over valued?

Formal education is necessary, but the over-emphasis on it by society today has resulted in my believing that formal education is indeed over valued. This problem is observed most clearly in Asian counties. There is so much emphasis placed on formal education that the students who undergo it are seen as a second priority. The students are seen as "dustbins" where knowledge can be dumped, as put in the second article. There is a severe lack of emphasis and society under values the importance of social skills. Formal education only gives students a set of things to know, not how to use them or when to use which one. Some of the unfortunate ones cannot even absorb this knowledge! The importance, and value that society has placed on this type of knowledge, on formal education is clearly beyond the socially optimal level. This is showing by the rising number of drop-outs and suicides caused by the rigid formal education system that society forces the students to undergo.

As said in the articles, although Asian students show a deeper understanding of Arithmetic and Science, they do not retain the knowledge they have gained on these topics after they leave the examination hall. The students do not have the "spark" in their eyes, "the eye of the tiger!" They are now simply going through the system because they have to, not because they enjoy it. The students who actually like a subject, or the rare student who has an affinity and liking for two subjects, are forced to make themselves more like others in the system, forcing them to focus on subjects they are not interested in. This is, as highlighted in the second article, one of the fatal flaws of the formal, mass education system. The system that we so love, has cut down the number of young, creative minds and created a nation of "worker bees," those who do "the rest of the jobs." By restricting a child, and causing him or her to become like the rest, we are destroying the potential of the child and those he is trying to become like. Since they all want to become educated to the same level, they are all the same, and have no value essentially. By not recognizing the loss it has brought to us, and still thinking it is the best way to get a good job, we have effectively over valued a flawed system, the formal education system.