In general, we need more life skills education at secondary and college level. Including ‘Decision making’ of which ‘purchase decisions’ is a particular case. This could include ‘establishing objectives & budget’, ‘information gathering’, ‘comparative analysis’, ‘trying & finalising’.
There are so many other critical life skills that we never learn at school/college. ‘Personal Productivity/Self Management’ for example. Or ‘Career Construction’. Or home skills such as ‘Basic Wiring/Plumbing/Masonry/Carpentry’. Or ‘Social skills’. Or ‘Personal Finance Management. Why, no one teaches us ‘Parenting’ which is such a critical ability!
Our education system is entirely based around ‘imparting knowledge’. It hardly focuses on ‘skills/competency building and application’. Ironically, knowledge can be largely self-learned (the reason why learning apps are flourishing) especially when it is available at finger tips now. It’s the development of skills and attitudes that needs personal facilitation. For that we’d need our ‘teachers’ to be re-skilled as ‘learning and development facilitators’ (training, coaching, mentoring the students). Some progressive schools like the Krishnamurti Foundation schools are moving towards this as I gather.
Not just at school level, but even college and higher education like engineering (which might be constituting over 60% of professional education in India). On the other hand, some other professional streams such as fine arts, architecture, even medicine have higher (but not necessarily adequate) focus on skill development and application.
I am a product of two top schools - IIT Bombay and SPJIMR, which were in stark contrast on this aspect. While the former has excessive focus on knowledge (concepts, theories… visualise CS101 being taught to 300 students at a time in the convocation hall with ppt slides!), the latter believed in learning and development through application and practice (including not just case study approach, but also rural/social internships, mentoring teenage school students, designing curricula, and running the institute itself!). No guesses on what has served me better in a career of around three decades now.