As someone who has been opportune to experience what the school system felt like a decades back and also get to have the present experience, I must confess that there's been a whole lot of improvement, now this is just based on tertiary level, focusing on what writing exams felt like, most of the time writing exams was all about cramming and not really understanding what was being taught then, as the main focus was all about passing the exam to move to the next level and at the end of the day get your certificate and this very reason is why there are so many half baked graduates roaming around unemployed, blaming the government for their joblessness and not being productive with what they learned in school.
I believe the blame can also be passed to the lecturers, who are mostly all about theories, and no practicals, who were also followed same cycle of training during their time, it's not up uncommon to find a chemistry graduate settling as a bank customer care rep. when his field of study is so vast that there is so much he can do to create a solution to his society, country or world at large that would sustain him for life, the failed system caused this.
Examination shouldn't be focused on just passing what is written on paper at that time, I believe it should be more about creating solutions to problems, and based on how the world is moving so fast. In terms of technology usage, we see kids as small as seven very competent in computer literacy skills, rather than take away these gadgets from students during exams, like I stated, there need to be an upgrade in examination setting, let thw student be able to think critically, and put into practical what they are taught to solving real life problems, based on their course of study or interest, I believe there should be a way around this, and not allow them follow through the same copy and paste pattern as it has been traditionally done for decades, only then would our school truly graduate solution providers , and not just another set of liabilities to the job market.
In my current school, there is no form of written exams for at least the first two years of studies, all questions are objective/subjective and done online, with a timer set, more like the CBT kind of exam, and there is no way you would be lucky to get a good grades if you don't study, as randomly selecting questions won't work in this case, it was new to me at first, but my confidence grew when I saw the questions, because I read and understand prior to taking the exams, though technical as I must give the questionnaire or examiner kudos, as each questions encourages us to think out of the box and not just copy and paste ideas, also being a computer literate is an added advantage, I wonder how someone in this age and time can be comfortable with not knowing the basics of using a computer, it was shocking to me to see acclaimed students needing help in knowing how to use a laptop or mouse, indeed our educational system needs to do better, and more importantly students shouldn't be too relaxed to push themselves further, don't stop at where you taught, you can always do better in improving your self.
All images used in this post are mine.*