The speaker's contention has some merits. In some cases, formal education does hold back one's mind from being free but formal education does not hobble one's mind from being free in every situation rather in particular cases, formal education is needed to set one's free.
In artistic and business arenas, formal education sometimes seems to hold back students' minds from being creative. Formal education requires students to take the examination and they have to study a lot of unnecessary rules and theories. The engagement in learning rules and theories makes students dull and more importantly, they do not have time to think about innovative ideas.
Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg will be a fitting example, they were dropped out of their formal education and managed to come up with a pivotal idea that changed the world.
However, in the scientific arena, formal education is almost mandatory because, without formal education, it is impossible to understand complex scientific matters. In the scientific arena, formal education provides students basic knowledge to freely think about more complex scientific matters and channel students' thoughts in a logical and right way.
Moreover, in the scientific field, after having basic ground from formal education, students can explore further and encounter with many new ideas. Formal education in the scientific fieldsets students' mind free to logically think and explore the unknowns
In sum, formal education may hold back one's mind in artistic and business arenas but in the scientific arena, it sets one's mind free to logically ruminate