Skills Over Scores
By Eden H. Ayele
We spend years in school, yet so much of what we learn stays trapped inside notebooks. Meanwhile, real life demands skills we barely get the chance to practice: communication, confidence, problem-solving, and the ability to actually apply what we study. Memorizing facts may help us pass exams, but it does not prepare us to face the world outside the classroom.We need more focus on communication, confidence-building, and the real-life application of what we learn. It is not enough to teach the theory. We need to use it. We need chances to speak, present, debate, create, and think on our own.
There is something else that matters. We used to visit many places before. We used to have field trips, exposure, and real experiences outside the classroom. But that has stopped. And because of that, we lost chances to build confidence, social skills, curiosity, the ability to connect our learning with the real world, and also we are now almost memory less. We don’t have any memory, story and life that we can even dare to tell as our life is circled with academic issues. And those trips, which we used to take part, were not “extra.” They were part of our growth, and removing them limited us.
Our school is trying to improve this situation to some extent, and yes, we see the effort. But trying is not enough anymore. The world is moving fast, and students need preparation that matches reality, not just exam papers.
To truly improve, the school should bring back field trips, increase communication-based activities, and include more practical projects that show us how to use what we learn in daily life. Workshops, debates, skill-based tasks, creative assignments, leadership programs, and real-world experiences are not optional. They are necessary.
We are ready to learn.
We are ready to grow.
The real question is: Will our voices change the system, or will what truly matters continue to be overlooked?
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Opinion & Editorials