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Criticism of Competency-Based Education: "We are emptying schools of their meaning"

An opinion piece warns that the fascination with skills overlooks culture and critical thinking.

Generic image of an open book on a stack of books in a library.
IA

Generic image of an open book on a stack of books in a library.

An opinion piece questions the current obsession with competencies in schools, arguing it can empty education of its deeper meaning and reduce it to skills training.

In recent years, the discourse on competencies has gained undeniable prominence in the educational system. The emphasis on skills such as teamwork, problem-solving, communication, and adaptability aims to create versatile students capable of facing a changing world. However, this uncritical fascination with competencies is generating growing concern: the loss of education's deeper meaning.
When the official narrative downplays the importance of content in favor of "knowing how to do," a dangerous message is conveyed, relegating knowledge, culture, and thought to a secondary level. This view is flawed, as without knowledge there is no critical judgment, and without critical judgment, there are no free citizens. A student can master all competency-based skills and still not understand the world around them.
The current trend turns schools into spaces for continuous training, almost like a skills gym. Yet, education is a slow and profound process that aims to form complete individuals, not just train abilities. Reducing learning to practical and applicable situations means abandoning the noblest dimension of the educational task: transmitting culture, sparking questions, building thought, and providing tools to understand the world's complexity.
This obsession with competencies often hides a desire to make schools "useful" according to economic criteria, primarily preparing young people for an uncertain job market. Education should not be an appendix to the economy, nor should young people be turned into adaptable products, but rather into critical and free citizens capable of transforming society.
Competencies are necessary, but they cannot replace culture, thought, reading, memory, curiosity, or the pleasure of understanding. If schools abandon these, they lose their reason for being, leaving students competent but potentially empty inside. Education must prepare students for life and help them find meaning in it, which is only possible if it's remembered that, before being competent, students must be educated individuals.

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