KPMG: Education sector stimulates innovation inadequately

Educational sectors in Europe provide students - future leaders - too little baggage in the area of innovation. According to a report from KPMG, 58% of respondents across Europe claim the way pupils are educated stifles innovation in later years. In contrast, 74% of those questioned in China argue that the educational system in their country “is an incubator for innovative thinkers”.

Anna Marie Detert, a director in the People and Change department of KPMG Advisory, believes that the European educational system sticks too much to it’s the heritage: “The educational system in Europe is more established than elsewhere and this backdrop of centuries of high standard setting is often used as an excuse for not allowing alternative views to be expressed in the classroom. It's a situation which means today's pupils - who are tomorrow's innovators - are less inclined to stand up and share their ideas out of a fear of being labeled as disruptive or non-conformist. They may be inclined to move to other geographies where their ideas can be heard and implemented”.