In the past, analytical skills were primarily required by professionals in specific fields—doctors, engineers, police officers, etc. These were adult professionals who had received sufficient education and training before undertaking such tasks.
Today, however, the situation is very different. Analytical skills are now essential for everyone—whether a student, housewife, farmer, or any ordinary person who hasn’t been formally trained in critical analysis. We all need these skills to navigate daily life.
Consider the decisions we make regularly — if you need a loan for education, agriculture, or housing, there are countless options with varying terms and conditions. If you want to buy a vehicle, the choices are overwhelming. When planning travel, you are faced with numerous options. Insurance policies, whether for your vehicle, health, or other purposes, are essential, and selecting the right one can be complex.
Even when you visit a doctor, you are often faced with a variety of specialists. If a student has to choose an educational path, the options are abundant and confusing. Even choosing the right subjects for a student can be challenging. In every aspect of life, we are bombarded with choices.
In addition, marketing and sales strategies are designed to influence our decisions, often with the goal of “hooking” us into a particular choice. If we make the wrong decision, we could find ourselves in difficult situations later. So, how do we ensure that we get accurate information and make well-informed decisions?
On top of this, we are constantly bombarded with information from all directions. When we turn to the internet for information, we’re faced with thousands of sources. Social media platforms like WhatsApp flood us with information on every topic imaginable. But how much of this information is accurate? How can we distinguish right from wrong?
There are also deliberate attempts by fraudsters, who are constantly at work creating large losses. Newspapers regularly report on crooks who siphon off substantial amounts of money from unsuspecting victims. These fraudsters often make impersonation calls, claiming to be from authorities or even from family members, using advanced artificial intelligence to mislead people, resulting in financial and other losses. Misleading information is widespread and exists in many forms.
There is no way for anyone to escape from these situations. Looking into the future the situation is only going to get worse. We all need accurate data to take decisions in life and move forward. In this scenario, how do we know the data are accurate and how do we get trained in analytical skills?
There are no foolproof solutions exist anywhere. The only thing one can do is that every individual must guard themselves. We all know, that is not easy at all. To do this everyone must develop a critical analytical capability. One cannot obtain this capability overnight but, step by step one can achieve this. One need a long-term approach with concerted effort. The training must start from very young age and continue, perhaps the whole life. This skill will be an extremely useful, a capability needed throughout one’s life.
One must get this training from professionals. Thus start this training from the school days and develop it step by step. Analytical capability development must be a part of the educational curriculum and every effort must be put into achieving it.
In mathematics, sciences and technologies, analytical methods are used and is a part of the problem-solving techniques. These methods definitely will be helpful. But what we are talking here is in social situations. So, one must put it into social science subjects and extend it to the situations that is happening around us. As technology and other activities advances in the future the situations will also change thus, this must be a continues learning process. Analytical skills can also be included in language topics.
Frauds and mis-information are increasing day by day. Everyone needs to get equipped with whatever defense capabilities to protect themselves and remain productive.
—The author, Dr. V. Premachandran, is a member of the working group in the Kerala State Planning Board, and was a Senior Fellow at the Solar Energy Research Institute, National University of Singapore.
Read his previous articles here
