Itai Liptz: Education Is Evolving Faster Than Institutions Can Keep Up

Walk into most classrooms and you’ll notice how little they’ve changed. Desks in rows, lessons on fixed timetables, and programs designed to take years to complete. Outside those walls, knowledge now moves in months. New tools, methods, and fields appear before curricula can react. The tension between how people learn and how institutions teach keeps growing wider each year.

Education hasn’t lost its value, but it’s fallen out of rhythm with reality. The systems built to ensure stability now move too slowly to handle constant change. Students finish long programs that can’t predict which skills will matter by the time they graduate. It’s not just a problem of speed—it’s a problem of alignment.

That gap leaves both learners and educators uneasy. As educator Itai Liptz has written, careers today often move faster than the systems meant to prepare people for them. ”If learning has become continuous and self-directed, what role should schools play?” says Liptz. “Can a system built to certify knowledge also support those who create it on their own?” The questions keep getting louder, and the answers are starting to define what education will mean in the decades ahead.

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When Skills Expire Overnight

A generation ago, learning a discipline meant years of relevance. Now, some skills fade before a degree even ends. Research from IBM found that technical skills have a “half-life” of about 2.5 years, meaning their usefulness can decline by half in that short span. The old pipeline—study, graduate, apply—doesn’t guarantee readiness anymore.

People have started to adapt on their own terms. They take short courses, learn from peers, and test ideas through small projects instead of waiting for a classroom update. Knowledge is no longer gated by institutions; it’s open to whoever looks for it. That independence brings momentum, but it also exposes how slowly formal systems adjust.

Employers have noticed. Many now care less about where someone studied and more about whether they can learn fast and show results. That doesn’t mean degrees are meaningless, only that they’re incomplete.

“In a world where information refreshes itself daily, education must become something you maintain—not something you finish,” says Liptz.

Systems Built for a Slower Century

Modern education took shape in an era that valued predictability. Standardized curricula kept things fair. Accreditation protected quality. Fixed schedules made sense when knowledge changed at the speed of printing presses. Back then, stability was progress.

Now that same structure feels heavy. Updating a program can take years of committee review. In one survey of computer science faculty, 42.8 percent said they didn’t have enough time to adopt new teaching methods—an example of how even well-intentioned educators are constrained by the systems they work within.

“By the time a course reaches students, the field it covers may have already moved on,” explains Liptz. “The delay isn’t intentional but structural.”

Most educators understand this better than anyone. They see how fast their subjects evolve, but they’re bound by the machinery around them. Reforming within that system is exhausting. It’s like trying to sprint while dragging a safety net that’s tied to the ground.

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As institutions slow down, learners have built their own ecosystems. Many now study through online groups, tutorials, and digital communities that trade ideas as soon as they appear. The shift has become mainstream—according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics, 61 percent of undergraduate students took at least one distance education course in 2021. Learning has moved from lecture halls to laptops, from schedules to spontaneity.

These networks reward initiative. A person can now prove what they know through what they build or share, not just what they list on paper.

“That freedom is powerful, but it also demands self-discipline,” says Liptz. “Without structure, it’s easy to jump from topic to topic without real depth.” The line between exploration and distraction can blur quickly.

Still, the energy of these informal spaces is undeniable. They respond immediately to what’s relevant and discard what isn’t. They give learners agency—something institutions often promise but rarely deliver. For many, this form of learning feels not like an alternative, but a correction.

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What Schools Still Do Better

For all their slowness, institutions still serve a purpose that’s hard to replace. They offer mentorship, community, and time—the kind of time needed for deep focus and shared inquiry. They provide credibility when the noise outside gets too loud. Not everything should move at the speed of a newsfeed.

Some schools have started to change, experimenting with flexible degrees, shorter credentials, and closer partnerships with industry. It’s a modest shift, but a meaningful one. The goal isn’t to imitate the chaos of online learning but rather to absorb its urgency without losing what makes education durable.

Good education balances structure with openness. Institutions can stay relevant if they stop treating themselves as gatekeepers and start acting as guides. That shift doesn’t demand revolution. It just requires humility—an acceptance that learning now happens everywhere.

Learning Without a Finish Line

Learning no longer ends with a diploma. It stretches through entire careers and across every shift in technology. Instead of completion, there’s maintenance—an ongoing process of adding, replacing, and refining what we know. The people who thrive understand that education isn’t an event; it’s a habit.

Technology will keep personalizing how people study, but the deeper change is cultural. Education is becoming less about proving you’ve learned and more about showing you can keep learning. The institutions that understand this will survive. The ones that don’t will be remembered for how long they tried to stand still.

“Maybe the goal isn’t for schools to catch up at all,” says Liptz. “Maybe their job is to steady the pace—to help people make sense of the speed rather than compete with it.” Because the learners who’ve already stopped waiting? They’re not falling behind. They’re already ahead.