When economists speak about education and human capital, they usually mean formal education. It is provided in schools and universities by formally qualified teachers. These are imparting knowledge that is laid down in curricula, and the result of the learning process is testified by certificates and diplomas conferred to those students who passed exams. Hence economists usually measure the availability of human capital in a society by the average number of years citizens attended schools and universities. Yet is formal education the only source of human sophistication and intellectuality?

Nowadays, it is widely accepted among educational scientists that there exist crucial skills which are either not at all or only insufficiently featured informal education systems.

Presenting information in a clear and concise manner, for example, is a central skill that is taught at schools and universities only sporadically. In a two-year master’s program like ISET’s, there are only two obligatory presentations a student must give: a literature critique in the first year and the master’s thesis in the second year have to be presented in front of audiences. These presentations are graded but enter the overall diploma grade only marginally. Despite the little weight attached to this skill in most formal education programs, the ability to present information clearly and to the point has enormous significance in most intellectual jobs.

Argumentation and discussion skills provide another example. These skills are central for every job where decisions have to be made in teams, i.e. the majority of today’s qualified jobs. How somebody performs in discussions, how well somebody can make their points, how effectively somebody gets a message across – these skills can be of paramount importance for progressing in one’s career. (Most directly, this is relevant when one needs to convince a boss that a promotion or a pay rise is called for.) Nevertheless, discussion skills are typically underrepresented in the learning curricula of formal education institutions, and students all over the world (also at ISET) organize extracurricular debating clubs in order to compensate for this deficiency.

Like with presentation skills, the reason why argumentation is not comprehensively covered in formal curricula is arguable because they are difficult to grade. How creative and how resourceful somebody makes their points in a discussion will to some extent be a subjective judgment. With classical exam problems, testing for bare knowledge, or demanding the student to make calculations, this problem does not exist.

THINGS ONE CANNOT LEARN AT SCHOOL

During this summer, a friend of one of the authors enthusiastically traveled to her village, Inchkhuri in the Martvili region, to actively spread non-formal knowledge there. Her main goal was to “cultivate the community” of the village and foster creative and independent thinking of the villagers. To this end, she arranged movie evenings that featured philosophical and intellectual films, and she invited her neighbors to coffee meetings for reading interesting media articles together. Both kinds of events were followed by discussions, encouraging everybody to freely express their opinions about the movies they watched or the articles they read. In these discussions, the villagers, old and young people alike, spoke about various topics, such as: principles of law, norms that are correct or incorrect, the importance of education, family and social environment, and people who were a source of inspiration for them and their thinking. People in a rural region, perhaps somewhat undersupplied with intellectual inputs that stimulate their intellectual capacities, discussed fundamental philosophical issues and were inspired by questions from the social sciences, politics, and economics.

INFORMAL EDUCATION

Educational scientists distinguish non-formal education from informal education. While non-formal education comprises everything that is not covered by formal degrees, certificates, and diplomas, the concept of informal education refers to learning that happens unintentionally and often subconsciously. According to Tony Jeffs and Mark K. Smith: “Informal education is a spontaneous process of helping people to learn” (Informal Education: Conversation, Democracy, and Learning, Educational Heretics Press, 2005).

Researchers argue about the role of informal education. According to some, informal learning is the most important form of education. Informal knowledge is accumulated anytime and anywhere, when talking with friends, colleagues, and parents, and when overcoming challenges and gaining experience in dealing with certain problems. Even though many do not realize it, we are all attending the “University of Life” each and every day.

Communication plays a central role in the theory of informal education. As Zeldin writes: “Conversation changes the way you see the world, and even changes the world” (Conversation: How Talk Can Change Your Life, Harvill Press, 1999). For example, talking with colleagues about computers and how to solve problems associated with them may most effectively improve one’s computer skills, even though no certificate or diploma is awarded for these conversations, and one may not even have recognized that one has learned something important. Through conversation, one does not only acquire pure knowledge, but one also learns to criticize ideas, argue on different topics, and agree with each other at some point. One gets exposed to other people’s viewpoints and shares one’s own ideas. According to the theory of informal education, conversation increases knowledge, deepens thinking, and can even change the fundamental convictions of people.

As informal and non-formal education may have such huge power and significance, educational institutions all over the world are engaging in experiments on how to support the acquisition of such knowledge. The increased emphasis on communication skills, encompassing presenting and debating, is largely owed to this development. Without any doubt, also in the Georgian educational institutions a lot of things could be done in this respect.