Education for 21st century jobs

Oinam Nabakishore Singh *

Nobel Laureate, Amartya Sen, in several articles and interviews expressed that governments have not paid adequate attention to education especially primary education in India. He gives examples of China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan and Singapore of having had 100% literacy many years back and having an advantage of educated workforce. With shift of share in economy of primary sector to secondary to tertiary, there is an increasing need for more educated labour. Most of the agricultural operations can happen with little education though having education help in better application of technology.

In Manipur, we notice that most of the farmers are able to manage farming in hills and valleys without much higher education. However, educated farmers will have advantage in understanding various important parameters related to farming like type of soil, choice of crop based on yield, price, market, etc., quantity of fertilizers to be applied and their mix, timing of application of fertilizer, post-harvest management, etc.

An educated farmer is also more likely to access credit from financial institutions, reduce the cost of finance, use crop insurance to manage risks, use better technology in agricultural operations, access market intelligence and get better price.

In manufacturing sector, the requirement of educated workforce is the all themore important as the operation of tools and equipments needs complete understanding of instructions, manuals and proficiency through training. With fast shift towards use of robots in assembly lines, blue collar workers need knowledge of information technology as well as engineering.

It is unthinkable to have blue collar workforce without knowledge of IT, electronics, engineering, etc. for assembly lines making jet engines. As economy grows, there is a shift from low technology to higher technology manufacturing as seen in USA, Japan, etc. The global hub of manufacturing, China, is also witnessing use of robots with artificial intelligence in many manufacturing lines.

In our state, Manipur, most of the manufacturing activities are at very low level of technology-grinding and mixing in making of spices, juice extraction in making fruit juices, manually cutting fruits in making pickles, rice milling, brick making, oil extraction, etc. In textile industry, in Manipur, we largely weave clothes by using fly shuttle handlooms.

We have also introduced power loom weaving in a humble way despite resistance from some quarters for fear of displacing handloom weaving.Knowledge of efficient machineries is spreading fast. We will have to switch over to better technologies to be competitive. This shift calls for educated workforce.

The share of service sector or tertiary sector increases as an economy grows. For instance,in 2015, agriculture contributed around 1.05 percent to the GDP of the United States, 20.5 percent came from industry, and 78.92 percent from the service sector. Services sector is the largest sector of India, which accounts for 53.66% of total India’s gross value addition(GVA)in 2016-17 at current prices.

Industrial sector contributes 29.02%, while, primary sector of the economy i.e. agriculture and allied sector contributes 17.32% of GVA. In Manipur, service sector is the major contributor to the economyas both agriculture and manufacturing are weak.

How do prepare future workforce with requisite knowledge and skills? Is the present education system good enough to meet the challenges of a knowledge based economy? Is the present curriculum and syllabus in schools and colleges outdated or not? While we look for answers to these questions, findings of some surveys may be glanced.

The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) study by an educational non-profit NGO revealed serious gaps in learning by secondary school students in India. In the 14-18 years age group, over one in two students could not do a simple division. “Only 43% are able to do such problems correctly,” the ASER 2017 conducted revealed. Similarly, nearly one out of two (47%) 14-year olds could not read a simple sentence of English; the proportion was two out of five for 18-year olds. It is not just English, 25% of the youth could not read basic text fluently even when it was in their own languages.

Since, around 10% of Indian population is in this age group, their productivity has a direct bearing on India’s competitiveness as an economy. At the same time, it also poses a political challenge to incumbent governments as they cannot be easily absorbed in the workforce—adding to the growing number of unemployed youth.

The learning levels of students in schools of Manipur may not be very much different from the national figures. Students with poor educational foundation go on to higher education in Manipur and other states. Here again, the story is not very different. Except those who go to reputed colleges and universities, many who graduated from private colleges and universities without qualified teachers are poorly equipped. My personal perception of a few civil engineering graduates who appeared for interview for some posts in Manipur was of very poor learning of their subjects.

Importance of communication skills, mainly in English, is recognized throughout the country.English medium schools have emerged to be the most preferred ones by parents. To supplement the gaps in English learning in schools and colleges, one can see a large number of spoken English training institutes at every street corners in states like Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, etc.

Proficiency in English is metaphorically termed as “Passport to Job”. If English is so important for prospect of employment especially in service sector, are we paying due importance to it in government schools in Manipur? The answer is that it is not good enough. An atmosphere of English speaking and learning needs to be introduced early in schools so that it is easily learned by students.

Many subjects being learned in schools and colleges are facts-based.Testing at examinations too is based on remembering facts. When any information on any subject is available on the internet, is it worth memorizing facts? Rather, we should be teaching the students the skills of critical thinking, problem solving, innovation, appreciating the opinions of others, working as a team, etc.

This will require an overhaul of curriculum and syllabus at all levels. Many well-known business men have said that most of the graduates from colleges are unemployable as they do not possess matching skills for the job. Academicians and educational administrators need to study the learning and skill requirements of present and future job market, and accordingly design curriculum and syllabus.

It is said that firms and businesses, which fail to innovate will perish sooner rather than later. If that is so, it makes sense to emphasize on creativity in the curriculum. Subjects like painting, sculpting, dance, drama, design, etc. should be the choice of students rather than the traditional subjects like history, geography, mathematics, etc. unless the students really like to specialize in the latter.

Information and communication technology will occupy more space in many goods and services we use in our daily lives. Internet of things will provide new convenience as more and more equipments are embedded by chips and intelligent softwares. Factories will be relying on robots to do many jobs tirelessly and displace human beings from their traditional domains.

We are also reading about autonomous vehicles, which is already a reality. Cars and trucks will no longer require driver. This will lead to displacement of drivers of taxis and trucks. Where will taxi and truck drivers find jobs? In such a situation, it is high time to awaken ourselves and come up with new learning, where we are better than robots. The change is happening faster than we realize.

We are stuck up with existing old subjects and curriculum. It is impossible to expect changes from teachers as change in learning paradigm will render them unsuitable for the new subjects and learning. They will be required to learn new subjects and new way of doing things. Change is painful.

People love status quo as Newton’s first law of motion states: Every object will remain at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless compelled to change its state by the action of an external force. This is normally taken as the definition of inertia. Who is going to apply the force to change the inertia?


Views expressed are personal.