Very recently in a conclave on Education, the Indian Minister for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship made the following statement." We have professors for mathematics and science but there are no educators for welding. For the last 67 years, the trend has been the same. The target for the PM, as well as our Ministry, is to look for people who are actually struggling and then provide them with a platform," He was further quoted as saying..."We have been successfully able to identify and mobilize a large number of people. We need to have an ecosystem to develop skills in the country," he added. The government has planned to train 50 lakh people in factory skills in five years in a bid to bridge the gap between unskilled youth force and industry requirements." Well, it has been a favorite pastime of our politicians to blame their predecessors for everything that has gone wrong so no surprise in the statement. The typical refrain of most people involved in the 'skills business' in India has been to the effect that we need to 'catch up' with the rest of the world. To me, there cannot be a more misconceived and ignorant approach than catching up. The assumption behind catching up is that others are waiting while we catch up with them. In a highly competitive world, everyone is running at breakneck speed and therefore the strategy has to be to continuously reinvent ourselves and be better than the best. The catching up therefore is nothing but an exercise in mediocrity. Let me elaborate on this theme. Very recently the deputy Prime Minister of Singapore Tharman Shanmugnathan visited India and was addressing the decision makers in New Delhi. In his 50-minute speech, he held a mirror to our policymakers. Much of it was a bit uncomfortable to the audience but what he stated was a harsh and unpalatable truth.(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyCeotVL5ZE)
While comparing India's lack of progress with China he observed that China has been able to achieve the shift of its population from low-income group to middle-income group India has been unable to do so. He, therefore, recommended that India should pursue the path of rapid transformation rather than gradual evolution. On the skills front, he was more blunt. Per him, the school system is facing the biggest crisis in India. Over 40% drop out before finishing upper primary school is a cause for concern. The curriculum is 'over academised' and the skills learnt have no practical meaning for the real world. Thus according to him the entire academic and skill eco-system, as it exists today in India, is irrelevant and not in sync with the needs of the modern world. He further cautioned robots and forays into artificial intelligence are going to replace many jobs in the service sector and therefore new skills have to be taught in our schools.
Reeling off data, the Dy PM said 43% of students drop out before finishing upper primary school. There is a shortage of 7,00,000 primary school teachers, only 53% of schools have girls’ toilets and only 74% have access to daily drinking water.
He went on to say this explains that when India took part in the OECD PISA study in 2009, it was ranked 73rd out of 74 countries. “And this is in a country which has exceptional talent with people who go to IITs and IIMs and lead companies all over the world and are first-rated,” he added. These very very disturbing observations on our entire education and vocational skills system. How can our catching-up syndrome help the situation?
In the recently held Olympics, even a small country like Kenya won 10 Olympic medals while India scraped through with a silver and bronze. While India stood at 67th rank in countries like South Korea, China was way ahead. In my view, these countries have a strategic vision that encompasses all aspects of human competencies and they invest systematically in nurturing the talent be it in vocational education or sports while in India we live by managing headlines. Don't believe me? Look at other evidence. In the Sao Palo World Skills 2015 Korea got 13 Gold, 7 Silver and 5 Bronze while China got 5 Gold, 6 Silver and 4 Bronze. India fielded 27 competitors and they stood at 35th position ( out of 45) without any medals! So it is obvious that we are going majorly wrong in setting our priorities. Looks like our Ministry of Skill Development is only interested in numbers and quality has no place in their system of planning. Simply blaming the predecessors is the easy option. We need to learn from successful economies like China, Germany, Brazil etc. and set our home in order. Our curriculum needs to be more relevant, teachers to be properly trained, industry exposure has to be part of the plan and above all the functioning of the delivery arms like the National Skill Development Corporation to be more in tune with what the industry is demanding. Right now it is more like a government department with bureaucratic procedures at every step. The deputy PM of Singapore was very prophetic when he made the statement " India has over-intervened in the economy and under-invested in social and human capital".
I will conclude this article by highlighting the pathetic state of preparedness of our vocational teachers/instructors. These worthies have no refresher training and have really not been exposed to quality reading material. Recently through my very close German friend Jurgen Mannicke, I happened to glance through some of the reading material for the automotive sector and I was amazed at the details provided in those booklets. Then I, out of curiosity, went through the Indian Automotive Sector Skill Council website. This looked like a matrimonial sight full of pictures without any relevant data! Don't believe me? Please visit http://asdc.org.in/industry-demand/#
I only wish the Prime Minister of Singapore visited India more often! If not it will be a case of many self-goals!
