Episode 4.16: We have to break the stranglehold of a self-reinforcing education system to survive.

Any system which attempts to reduce its evaluation of the worth of a human being to one dimension, particularly by ranking students on a single scale as if that scale represents their value, is misleading and destructive of human self-regard. There is no justification for such measurement at all. We need to learn to appreciate the multidimensional aspects of human life that mean that every human being has much to contribute to society, and not only those who can do well in narrowly-defined examinations with barely any connection to real life. This academic pretence, which has dominated education for centuries, has got to be challenged and broken because it has destroyed more lives than it has created and it has discouraged more people from fulfilling their part in the world than any other single human institution. It is time for change.