Time to reboot the education system, says PM's advisor in skill development council

Chennai:

The education system is in need for resuscitation and it is time to reboot the system, according to advisor to the Prime Minister in the National Skill Development Council and vice chairman of Tata Consultancy Services S Ramadorai.

 

Delivering the Second C K Parhlad Memorial Lecture, organized by Aspen Institute of India and Confederation of Indian Industry, Ramadorai said that “We are not working smart, not learning from what is happening in other nations and not planning ahead.”

 

He said the education system as a conventional model of assorted brick and mortar schools will soon be questioned as the global universities are undergoing online. He said that most universities, below the upper tier, would have to integrate second virtual university into the standard one. He also highlighted how United States is planning to provide more than 99 per cent students with high speed Internet.

 

He said that the 21^st century model demands shedding our traditional mindsets. Online resources like wikis to broadcast are allowing children and adults to pursue education of their own. This can also help empower children in rural areas of India, which lack quality teachers. He said that schools and universities on a cloud is a real possibility.

 

“We need to work out a plan to make on-demand learning a reality using the national IT backbone on the rural broadband which is currently under implementation,” he said.

 

He also highlighted how several IITs, Nasscom and several private technology companies have joined hands to provide free online courses. “This could help 100,000 to 150,000 people a year and make them job ready,” he said.

 

He said the need of the hour is to have job-led growth and for this one has to cultivate entrepreneurs and promote small and medium enterprises. He also suggested a constituency model that aims to leverage local MP and his field office as powerful last mile solution for a student. “On a national scale if each MP is responsible for training 5,000 youth in his or her constituency, then in the next five years we will have 1.5 crore skilled workforce. “The model is already being implemented in certain pockets and we are looking at scaling up,” he said.

The second one is National Service Scheme, a youth focused initiative which has grown considerable from 0.4 million to 2.3 million members in 2013 operating in 219 institutions. There is a move by Ministry of Youth Affairs to reposition the NSS by introducing skills training, he said. “A 10 university pilot is being launched this year and if successful it will provide a demonstrable model for future,” he added. He also highlighted Maharashtra initiative, which is trying to bridge the demand for skilled labour by launching a portal next month.