As we are still debating about the authenticity and effectiveness of Macaulay Education imposed upon India during the colonial period, we should now move on from this for not to repeat the mistakes we did during the previous Industrial Revolutions. With a large young population and an aging China, India is nicely poised to widen the scope of its demographic dividend in the era of third and fourth industrial revolution (The revolution of information & communication and automation).
What favors us?
The high number of young population is an inherent advantage that we have as this allows our economy to grow because the large working population is there to feed the lesser non-working population. This is otherwise called as the demographic dividend or in simple words the advantage of having higher young population. China once had this advantage and they had fully utilized it for their development and growth. However, with an increase in aging population in China as well as with a saturated industrial growth combined with already aged western countries, India is the only productive country to which the world is looking at for manpower which is what " Make in India" is asking for. Though Artificial intelligence and Automation lead to a reduction of human workforce in the industries; it is strongly believed that the demand for skilled workers is still high and it is going to stay even in the era of automation.
Where are we lagging?
India has a severe shortage of skilled blue collar as well as white collar workers. While the blue collar workers are important for sustaining the economy, the white-collar workers are needed to drive the economy ahead. Without having a skilled workforce we will lose the advantage of the working population that we have. The education system and lack of vision combined with the rigidity of our society are affecting adversely the skill improvement of the youth. Though various skill improvement schemes are undertaken by the government they are more or less addressed to the current unemployment of the country by empowering them with skill. While these are welcome steps for short-term development; for sustained development we need to address the root cause, i.e., Education and limitations surrounding it.
The Phobia of 99.5%
Indians are obsessed with marks. So much so that in long run it is affecting the very ownness of the student. The immense pressure along with intense competition among 1.3 billion population leaves very little scope for other extracurricular activities, especially sports. Lack of sports affects every individual adversely; though there are many negative impacts of this, the most important one is
"Creativity". A society can not progress with creativity. Our lack of creativity should be dealt as soon as possible. A simple measure could be the encouragement of sports with various rewards and create an environment to infuse trust among the people for accepting sports as a career. The grading system should be introduced in the education system instead of providing percentage and admission for higher education should solely be based on competitive examinations. This has three significant advantages. First, it will reduce the day to day competition to a large extent thereby significantly reducing the inferiority complex and keep the confidence of individual on track. Secondly, it will reduce the pressure on student significantly. In the current situation, a student takes pressure with the sole motive of not to take any pressure once he achieved something like getting a seat in IIT or AIIMS and getting a reputed Govt. job or working in Big MNCs. However, once they reach there, it is widely seen they lose the enthusiasm after the perceived success as they are exhausted with running in a race. Thirdly, it will encourage skill improvement rather than glorify academic records with fancy numbers.
Moving towards Skill Based Education
Data is the new Oil. Data processing, Data analysis, and Data Science are the fundamentals of the era of information technology and communication as well as for AI. Why make it out of reach from the students for 20 long years till he reaches the end of his graduation or completes his graduation. Data management is the new mathematics and should be learned to start at the primary education. Data processing, Data analysis, Data Science should be analogous to Algebra, Calculus, and Algorithm of mathematics in the current education system. Other significant steps could be to start teaching basic algorithm at the primary level and introducing skills in the graduation level itself. For example, C programming should be introduced at the secondary education level and basic programming with important language learnings should be completed before intermediate level. The intermediate level should be restructured so as to justify its name. It should really help the student to prepare for skill learning to be taught in the graduation level. It may be harsh or difficult seeing the current scenario but waiting for 25 years to start learning a skill is absolutely absurd. In a country where one of the best ever ruler Chandragupta Maurya became an emperor at the age of 20 and had defeated the Greeks at the age of 18 clearly shows there is no point of delaying the actual learning to 25 years. Skill should contain significant weight in the graduation grading. This will help focused and advanced learning and adaptability in higher education as well as corporate life. The skill-based innovation is more important for our economy than academic invention.
Way Ahead
The primary challenge in restructuring the education system would be infrastructure development and capacity building of teachers and instructors.Because advancing of the education is very difficult task unless it is done smoothly. The government obviously cannot spend on this. PPP (Public Private Partnership) model is absolutely necessary for this purpose. Rather than focusing on the digital mode of education focus should be on digital education itself; otherwise, we will be lured by the fantasy of reading in tabs, laptops, projectors without actually gaining anything. Except for the end service in the priority sector like agriculture pricing, food distribution, rural electrification every other service should either be privatized or should be remodeled in PPP style. There should be adequate regulations in the labor law to avoid exploitation of employees in the private sector.Special provisions should be in place for rural sector outreach and their involvement. Rather than criticizing the reservation system in the govt job which is hardly one percent of the working population we should focus on skill building and entrepreneurship because India is itself a large market and unemployment can only be reduced with skill development and not with job creation. Standardisation of the syllabus for every entrance examination as well as post-secondary school level education is absolutely necessary for the overall and equitable development of the students. Egalitarian society along with an Egalitarian education will lead the path to a prosperous India.
What favors us?
The high number of young population is an inherent advantage that we have as this allows our economy to grow because the large working population is there to feed the lesser non-working population. This is otherwise called as the demographic dividend or in simple words the advantage of having higher young population. China once had this advantage and they had fully utilized it for their development and growth. However, with an increase in aging population in China as well as with a saturated industrial growth combined with already aged western countries, India is the only productive country to which the world is looking at for manpower which is what " Make in India" is asking for. Though Artificial intelligence and Automation lead to a reduction of human workforce in the industries; it is strongly believed that the demand for skilled workers is still high and it is going to stay even in the era of automation.
Where are we lagging?
India has a severe shortage of skilled blue collar as well as white collar workers. While the blue collar workers are important for sustaining the economy, the white-collar workers are needed to drive the economy ahead. Without having a skilled workforce we will lose the advantage of the working population that we have. The education system and lack of vision combined with the rigidity of our society are affecting adversely the skill improvement of the youth. Though various skill improvement schemes are undertaken by the government they are more or less addressed to the current unemployment of the country by empowering them with skill. While these are welcome steps for short-term development; for sustained development we need to address the root cause, i.e., Education and limitations surrounding it.
The Phobia of 99.5%
Indians are obsessed with marks. So much so that in long run it is affecting the very ownness of the student. The immense pressure along with intense competition among 1.3 billion population leaves very little scope for other extracurricular activities, especially sports. Lack of sports affects every individual adversely; though there are many negative impacts of this, the most important one is
"Creativity". A society can not progress with creativity. Our lack of creativity should be dealt as soon as possible. A simple measure could be the encouragement of sports with various rewards and create an environment to infuse trust among the people for accepting sports as a career. The grading system should be introduced in the education system instead of providing percentage and admission for higher education should solely be based on competitive examinations. This has three significant advantages. First, it will reduce the day to day competition to a large extent thereby significantly reducing the inferiority complex and keep the confidence of individual on track. Secondly, it will reduce the pressure on student significantly. In the current situation, a student takes pressure with the sole motive of not to take any pressure once he achieved something like getting a seat in IIT or AIIMS and getting a reputed Govt. job or working in Big MNCs. However, once they reach there, it is widely seen they lose the enthusiasm after the perceived success as they are exhausted with running in a race. Thirdly, it will encourage skill improvement rather than glorify academic records with fancy numbers.
Moving towards Skill Based Education
Data is the new Oil. Data processing, Data analysis, and Data Science are the fundamentals of the era of information technology and communication as well as for AI. Why make it out of reach from the students for 20 long years till he reaches the end of his graduation or completes his graduation. Data management is the new mathematics and should be learned to start at the primary education. Data processing, Data analysis, Data Science should be analogous to Algebra, Calculus, and Algorithm of mathematics in the current education system. Other significant steps could be to start teaching basic algorithm at the primary level and introducing skills in the graduation level itself. For example, C programming should be introduced at the secondary education level and basic programming with important language learnings should be completed before intermediate level. The intermediate level should be restructured so as to justify its name. It should really help the student to prepare for skill learning to be taught in the graduation level. It may be harsh or difficult seeing the current scenario but waiting for 25 years to start learning a skill is absolutely absurd. In a country where one of the best ever ruler Chandragupta Maurya became an emperor at the age of 20 and had defeated the Greeks at the age of 18 clearly shows there is no point of delaying the actual learning to 25 years. Skill should contain significant weight in the graduation grading. This will help focused and advanced learning and adaptability in higher education as well as corporate life. The skill-based innovation is more important for our economy than academic invention.
Way Ahead
The primary challenge in restructuring the education system would be infrastructure development and capacity building of teachers and instructors.Because advancing of the education is very difficult task unless it is done smoothly. The government obviously cannot spend on this. PPP (Public Private Partnership) model is absolutely necessary for this purpose. Rather than focusing on the digital mode of education focus should be on digital education itself; otherwise, we will be lured by the fantasy of reading in tabs, laptops, projectors without actually gaining anything. Except for the end service in the priority sector like agriculture pricing, food distribution, rural electrification every other service should either be privatized or should be remodeled in PPP style. There should be adequate regulations in the labor law to avoid exploitation of employees in the private sector.Special provisions should be in place for rural sector outreach and their involvement. Rather than criticizing the reservation system in the govt job which is hardly one percent of the working population we should focus on skill building and entrepreneurship because India is itself a large market and unemployment can only be reduced with skill development and not with job creation. Standardisation of the syllabus for every entrance examination as well as post-secondary school level education is absolutely necessary for the overall and equitable development of the students. Egalitarian society along with an Egalitarian education will lead the path to a prosperous India.
