People And Their
Problems
New Delhi, 28 July 2007
Educational Reforms
MUST FOR INDIA SHINING
By Suraj Saraf
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
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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