We can now comfortably say that we are surrounded by data today. Everything today is related to data. Data has managed to invade every aspect of our life. With this invasion, it is now becoming neccessary to introduce data literacy for the upcoming generation.
Data invasion has two major sides, with one side showing how can data can be manipulated and how it can hurt and invade someone’s privacy. On the other hand, there are thousands of benefits if the data is used properly. With all this, one thing is bound to happen and proven in a study by IDC- Data in 2025 will be ten times what it is today.
A new industrial revolution is coming and it will heavily depend on data. According to a definition of by MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology),
Data literacy is the ability to read, work, analyze and argue with data.
And this is indeed very well defined. Companies like Google or Gartner rely heavily on data and are now imparting data literacy to their employees. Being data literate automatically scales up the employee’s performance in such companies.
Why data literacy?
Students pursuing MBA or economic majors are well acquainted with the use of data. But there is a need for introducing the basic concepts of data at an earlier stage as well. Several teachers across the world have said this that the mathematics taught to the student is outdated. The curriculum and the course content should be changed and replaced with data literacy and data fluency skills.
If we talk about SATs, in the aptitude section, 20% of the questions are based on data fluency. Even in language questions, some questions demand data fluency.
In a survey done by Pearson, known as the Global Learner’s Survey, there were some shocking trends reported in it. Out of those, one of them was that the millennials now do not believe in a college degree and have lost their confidence with the current education systems all around the world.
One of the primary reasons for this change can be that school doesn’t teach anything about data, which is and will be the leading requirement of the exams and jobs in the future. With the focus on STEM, there seems to be some hope to save the education system but ultimately it will fall down if quick measures aren’t taken to introduce data and data-related subjects.
Featured image from Pixabay
