Think Harder

Pablo Galvez & Ivan Sanchez

Our goal with this podcast channel is to provide interesting insights into major current developments, delving deep into economic, cultural and geopolitical issues that shape our world. We do that by drawing from our experiences, knowledge and personal perspectives. Disclaimer: This podcast is a personal project and the views expressed in it are solely those of the authors and do not represent the views of the institutions the authors work or have worked for in the past.

Episodes

  1. 05/30/2021

    A bumpy road ahead in the pursuit of good education systems

    In this episode, Ivan and I tried to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of different educations systems across the European Union and Asia.  We try to assess which countries have been the most successful in the EU when it comes to interconnecting their education systems to the job market. We dive deep into which countries have kept a more traditional method of education with heavy reliance into memorisation and which ones have opted for a more practical approach. We examine recent changes in education systems and their success or not, such as the Bologna process. We compare the Anglo-Saxon model of education to that of some countries in continental Europe (such as France, Italy or Spain). We take a look at the education systems in Asia and the link between education and the job market. We examine whether they put more stress on providing practical tools or whether they rely more on memorisation. In East Asia (e.g. China, Japan or Korea) we outline the successes of their systems but also underline the pressure they put into young students and their families to succeed in university entrance exams which are causing an array of diverse social problems. We, finally, look into which kind of measures can governments consider when reforming their education systems and we also take a look at the pernicious influence of the politisation of the education systems in some countries and how it has impacted their reform processes.

About

Our goal with this podcast channel is to provide interesting insights into major current developments, delving deep into economic, cultural and geopolitical issues that shape our world. We do that by drawing from our experiences, knowledge and personal perspectives. Disclaimer: This podcast is a personal project and the views expressed in it are solely those of the authors and do not represent the views of the institutions the authors work or have worked for in the past.