Why do you send your children to school? Why do you want to educate them?” I asked. The answer was the same in villages and small towns, as I traveled from Karnprayag and Rudraprayag in the Garhwal mountains, to Surguja and Jashpur Nagar in eastern Chhattisgarh, to Chamarajanagar in southern Karnataka. And this has been the answer over the years. There are three parts to the answer. One, today there is no respect without education. Two, education is necessary to deal with today’s world. Three, education is necessary for good employment. These expectations are directly related to the aims of education and our curricular goals, as committed in our policies.
There is no doubt that our education system is failing to deliver basic learning outcomes, it is falling short of other objectives including its economic ones.
Its inadequacy has a role in youth underemployment and high rates of unemployment. A large part of the blame can be placed on the lack of creation of sufficient numbers of good jobs and livelihood opportunities, but of course our schools and higher education systems are also part of the problem.
The fundamental failures of quality and equity in our education system have a profound and widespread impact on all matters, including access to jobs and avenues of employment. However, there are two special features of our education system and its approach that have an even more direct impact on the issue of employment and livelihoods.
First, as in most parts of our society, education confers a high status on abilities that have to do with the thinking: ‘Working with the head.’ It ranks very low for doing any work: ‘Working with the hands.’ This is evident not only in the status of ‘Vocational Education’ as lower than ‘Academic Education’, but within academic education as well. ‘Practicals’ in science, as they are called in Indian schools and colleges, have ridiculously low weight in assessment. Even in engineering colleges, there is more emphasis on sitting and writing rather than doing it. Second, this approach pays little or no attention to the development of the ability to do things, often referred to as ‘skills’. Skills are about working with your hands on a variety of things, dealing with people, communication, and more.
All this has many implications. At a very basic level, this creates an artificial separation between knowledge and skills. Whereas in fact ‘know-what’ and ‘know-how’ are inextricably linked; The head and hands (and indeed the heart too) have to work together for effectiveness. A sharp separation of our vocational and academic education systems is another implication. This separation has been increased manifold over the past few decades as a complete ‘skill training’ system has emerged.
We have created two underdeveloped and inadequate systems. We have an academic education system that ignores ‘information’ and we also have a skill-training and vocational education system that is shallow in the absence of ‘know-what’. In the process, we have reinforced social stigma and deepened inequalities between those who can access an academic education and those who are forced into vocational education and skills training. This is the design of our system itself – let alone the quality of the results.
There is some reason for hope. The National Education Policy 2020 will address many of these issues when implemented. First, it ensures that education objectives value ‘headwork’ as much as ‘handwork’, and it does so by recognizing that ‘know-how’ and ‘know-what’ are not separated. could. Second, it bridges the gap between academic education, vocational education and skills training systems. It achieves this by integrating all these aspects within education – from school to higher education. Third, it contains many subtle elements. For example, ensuring that all children have access to vocational education courses, not just those who cannot make it to the academic world; It helps to break down the hierarchy between doing and thinking. Ensuring that ‘Vocational Education’ and ‘Skill Training’ are offered as an integral part of the curriculum in the most prestigious higher education institutions. The pedagogical approach will also have a profound effect on linking all the subject matter being learned to the world around the student. There are others there.
Addressing the system’s shortcomings will help develop individuals who have what it takes to transition from school to work and adapt to rapidly changing labor markets. But this is only part of the equation. Large part is ensuring that the economy creates enough good jobs.
For this good job creation needs to be given priority; Even a sufficiently better education system – one that integrates information and information – will not lead to a positive long-term economic trajectory for our youth.
There is an urgent need for a national strategy for job creation that is rooted in the reality of our country and fully responsible for the global economic and technological change. Good education is a necessary condition for economic well-being—good and growing jobs, but it is by no means a sufficient condition.
Anurag Behar is the CEO of Azim Premji Foundation
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