India News and Features Alliance (INFA) - Educational Reforms:MUST FOR INDIA SHINING, by Suraj Saraf, 28 July 2007

To become a world economic power, should talent building be the new mantra for India? Yes, but present systems need to change. Reform in the educational system is a must. Be it is schools, colleges or technical institutions.

According to top corporate bodies and experts, India is woefully short of workforce in spite of us being a nation of over a billion people. Though the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) estimates a booming economy with about nine per cent GDP growth annually, it suggests that the country will require a two-fold increase in the present skilled workforce. A recent study reveals that of the existing 8.5 million work force, about 30 per cent will retire in the next five years.

It is feared that inequity in the demand-supply of manpower will present itself in diverse industry verticals such as IT, retail banking, manufacturing, logistics, infrastructure and management due to lack of quality workforce, absence of vocational training and job hopping.

The mismatch between demand and supply of the manpower in industry is due to shortage of employable graduates, say statistics. As the Indian GDP is estimated to double to $ 3.6 trillion from present 8 billion current capacity, the capacity building to create talented workforce and meet the targets is a challenge faced by all stakeholders, especially in industry, academia, government and civil society.

“Talent creation and management have become the most critical business process for India,” is the CIIs forecast. This is dittoed by a NASSCOM/Mc Kinsey estimate, which states that in the next decade, shortage of skilled workers will be staring the Indian industry in the face.

Its report on talent supply said that India would need a 2.5 million strong IT and BPO workforce by 2010 to maintain its current market share. It projected a potential shortfall of nearly 9.5 million qualified employees, nearly 70 per cent of which would be concentrated in the BPO industry.

Most telling views in this regard have been aired by the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who had inter alia warned that this shortage could prove a “major bottleneck” in achieving higher growth targets in the coming years. “We have done exceptionally badly in the area of developing skills in the past and this will prove to be a constraint towards achieving growth rate of 9 per cent”, he confessed at an Employment Summit.

“Current skill development is inadequate and we need employment-linked degrees. We will scale up the programme to upgrade and modernise the Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) to improve both their quality and quantity of training. Private sector has a major role to play in delivering job-related training because private colleges are more flexible in curriculum development than government institutions.”

According to NRI industrial tycoon, Swaraj Paul, “If India is to maintain the momentum of its economic miracle and ensure that benefits reach all Indians then change and reform in the overall education system is a must” Delivering a lecture at an Indian University he was firm that the country was poised to become a world economic power. However, to achieve this goal, change was necessary; and that “without reforms in education, reforms in economic field will be incomplete.”

Indeed, for long there has been a clamour for transforming the present ‘static’ education system into a dynamic and creative regime. Different perceptions have been advanced touching different aspects of development of students in this regard.

Looking at the problem from an economic angle, Paul recommends: Reforms in education must recognize the reality of globalization. India must respond to the needs of the economy and the demands of the students for modern and relevant educational programmes that will equip them for employment and the challenges of New India and a globalised world economy.

Besides, there is need for access to higher education for more students and teaching of new subjects. Indian Universities, according to him must emulate the U.K. experience, take courage to develop new subjects and challenge traditional ideas.

So far so good, viz the economic development of India. But there is another basic angle to education reforms. It concerns the environment in which the talent and personality of students can be best developed to cope with the future challenges in any sphere of work.

Recent media reports point out that the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) is preparing a revolutionary concept viz “dynamic time schemes.” It aims at using the school time more creatively.

Time table in schools across the country is set to change beyond recognition. Students will no longer have to sit through a succession of 35-minute periods mugging lessons from the blackboard. The NCERT is said to be set to replace the “time table” system with concept of “time packaging”--- a flexible schedule involving students’ activities, time for self-study and even trips beyond the school bounds.

NCERT had already begun collecting feedback from schools on the time management system and hopes to introduce it from 2008-2009. “The rigidity in the education system is best portrayed in the school time table. Our aim is to make time management an essential aspect of academic planning and bring flexibility and variation in practices.”

The dynamic time scheme will allow kids to choose the subject they would like to study on a particular day. If they wanted to learn about water the topic would be included in discussions on subjects like math, science, social science, health and hygiene. The system plans to use school time more creatively. So, instead of students just sitting in class and listening to instructors, time could be set aside for them to clean, sing together, listen to a guest talk, put up display boards in classrooms or enjoy the weather outside the school premises. Let’s start at the very beginning. ---INFA