Farhaan Mir, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of 11Onze, is involved in educational projects focused on creating a more sustainable, fair and equitable world. One of these projects is Da Vinci Life-Skills, and in this podcast, he explains why it is time to change the current education system.

The Industrial Revolution changed society, transforming hitherto agriculture-based economies into economic models based on large-scale mechanised manufacturing. The impact of this paradigm shift also evolved the educational model, provided by states, more regimented and accessible to a large part of the population.

Still, the focus of education was on serving the needs of industry, as Mir notes, “you had to learn to read, write and basically manage”. It was a standardised and efficient, but impersonal curriculum.

The importance of creativity

The drive to increase efficiency in the workplace was often linked to a detriment of individuality and creativity in an educational model designed to train people who were becoming part of the machinery of industrial production. Subjects such as the arts and creativity were seen as secondary.

Da Vinci Life-Skills wants to rethink the national curriculum by emphasising a multisensory and multidisciplinary education that puts people at the centre. As Mir explains, “the retention, the power to hold children’s attention, is much greater when you teach in a way in which you don’t talk to children, but talk with children.

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