'India has exam
system, not education system'
C N R Rao, who heads the Scientific Advisory Council to the
Prime Minister (SACPM), made this statement in a letter to the Prime Minister
in April 2011. This hurt the sentiments of lot of educationists who believed
that India was able to face competition from global forces effectively on job
front.
However, this is what I believe: The skills possessed by Indians,
is not the reason for the “growth story”. India is enjoying the benefits of “demographic
dividend” due to fall in birth rates and improvement in life expectancy; Hence,
the availability of employable youths in the country has increased manifold in
the last two decades. Thus a lot of jobs were created with outsourcing becoming
the buzz word. Let’s face it most of the
jobs being created were those which required minimum skill set.
In a country like India
where there is an emphasis on exams rather than skills at any level of formal
education it is important for the government to take steps to promote
organizations which aim to enhance skills of individuals going forward so that
the work being outsourced is higher on the value chain. These organizations
could very well run for profit and contribute in the same way in which NIIT
Ltd. has contributed to overall education. They not only help an individual to
increase his overall employability but also help improve an organisation’s
competitiveness in the long run. This pushes the production possibility
frontier outward and takes growth rate of the country to the next level. Skill
building could also be seen as an instrument to empower the individual and
improve his/her social position. In
today’s competitive environment where your competitors can be from any part of
the globe quality of the product and services seems to be an important
differentiator. The quality to a great extent depends on the ability of the
work force which in turn depends on the skill set that the employees
possess. Hence, skill building is often
seen as a vehicle to improve the effectiveness and contribution of labor to the
satisfaction of customers.
National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) was created in
early 2008 with the same objectives in mind. It has Union finance ministry as
one of it’s founders and aims at training 500 million people by 2022, and has
identified 21 sectors for which 150 million people will be trained by 2022 .
This, comes as a welcome relief for everyone in the education sector who
believe that education is all about getting the students prepared for bigger
battles in life and not about creating walking encyclopedias who cannot even
provide four square meal for his family. In 2011-12, the National Skill
Development Corporation (NSDC) approved 26 new projects, doubling the projects
sanctioned since 2009 to 52, with a total funding commitment of Rs 1,205 crore.
This is a welcome sign for future of skill development industry in India. To
add to to this Skill development received
Rs 1,000 crore as an allocation to the National Skill Development Fund
for 2012-13.
I would like to conclude by saying that it might be small news
compared to the ones that hogged the limelight with respect to budget but a
giant step in the process of helping Indian industries move up the value chain.
Author: Abhishek Sinha
Abhishek Sinha has approximately 8 year of experience in equity research, business research and consultancy. He has also had the privilege of managing a small portfolio of INR 3 million. However, his interest lies in teaching and "demystifying concepts." He has taught students right from the age of 3 years at PP1, to 40 years at executive courses and believes teaching is not about knowing the concepts; it is about relating the concepts to the audience. At present he is "gainfully employed" at Vignana Jyothi Institute of Management, Hyderabad; where he loves to teach finance to an enthusiastic bunch of management students. His hobbies include analyzing income statement, balance sheet and cash flow.> Google +
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