Skill or Education - What India wants?

Economic progress is often accompanied by a voyage through untested territories. That is what is happening in India right now.

As one of the world’s fastest growing economies and currently the 4th largest by GDP, we have indeed come a long way.

But things seldom are as plain as they seem when we take a myopic view.

Ironically, while wading through complex political tyrannies and ever evolving geo-political chaos, India never really got a chance to go full throttle in developing its core foundation i.e. the education system.

As the future beckons us, we face an education system that is rooted in legacy, indifference and unaccountability — without even touching upon the aspects of poor teaching methodologies, crippling infrastructure and an outdated curriculum.

The world is moving at tremendous pace, and for India to stay relevant and efficient means overhaul of the cornerstone of our progress — education.

For years, our primary focus has been on empowerment of the marginalized sections of the society — which has been relied heavily on reservations. Woefully, it has demonstrated dismal results as far as impact of reservations is concerned. And unfortunately it has become a convenient tool for the country’s political parties to use narrative for political gains.

Coupled with nepotism, red tapism and lack of honest intent our education policies lack vision and thrust.

At the other end — the urban landscape, we find a completely different problem. A clamor to be the best in scholarly education, chasing the hollow ideals of the rat race. There is almost a frenzy — an obsession to pursue with mad diligence — an unknown script that prioritizes education over anything else.

But solely focus on education is insufficient and insignificant like the dew on grass. Education is a means to an end, and society is the compass on which it steers to the best shore.

While education opens eyes, society broadens the mind to new horizons. The educational progress as we find is stuck in the maze, and society besotted with cultural dogmas makes it harder to pursue change thereby limiting mindsets.

This is the age of revolutionary technology, Artificial intelligence and super globalization.

For a country with around 1.4 billion population, it can be a great time to leverage growth like never before.

But stay unprepared, and you risk losing it all. At such an pivotal stage, our children are still pursuing what generations before did and often find themselves pitted against what society expects them to do.

Therefore we find institutions mushrooming all around with students graduating every year who posses low job caliber and mediocre skillsets. This is true across streams, universities and regions — the result the same, fresh graduates who either fail to find jobs or those who do join but find workplace an alien turf.

Thus we find despite a tremendous requirement within the job market — a huge cesspool of unemployed graduates. Fifteen years in the education backyard and yet not one meaningful skill that can help them get the job done. Furthermore, the final years of education — in college and universities all spent without cultivating practical competence or real-world exposure.

The solution lies in the problem itself

1. Reform the reservation framework while strengthening equal educational opportunities for all.
2. Increase the number of every schools by targeting an increased budget allocation towards funding education.
3. Accountability is the key problem — while funds are often available, they get diverted to vested interest. Hence increase vigilance, monthly and yearly tracking to ensure paperwork finds life on execution.
4. Attract quality teachers and retain talent moving out of the country so that quality education is imparted especially in government schools.
5. Revamp the syllabus and courses — placing emphasis on an updated curriculum aligned with emerging technologies.
6. Corporate honchos to be on every school and college advisory board — to drive visionary education.
7. Job market analysis —regularly conducted to eliminate skill gaps, and a dedicated subject should be introduced in colleges to bridge the link between academic courses and industry requirements.
8. Marking system with greater emphasis on practical learning and project based assignments.

So yes, what India needs right now is a new blueprint for its education system. Let’s be clear — education cannot be completely deprioritized or done away with. Rather, it must be complemented by skill-based academics.

Skills must form the larger part of the curriculum, enabling graduates to become effective job seekers and competent problem-solvers in the workplace.

Such a shift would naturally help reduce the growing pool of unemployment in the country.

On a closing note, better education infrastructure that lives up to modern expectations will also ensure that our best talent is retained within the country — rather than feeling compelled to pursue higher studies abroad.

Skills will find the way to the rightful place, only if they are the part of the mainstream education and not something that needs to be acquired separately.