Need to future-proof skills of students, workers

CAN generalising learning push Indian economy towards a healthier growth path? We say that is the only way possible. Otherwise, we shall remain stuck in our morass.

As the Indian economy struggles to get back on its feet, it is imperative we notice that this is still the same old bricks-and-mortar economy which is coming back to life. This economy, even when it is fully revived, will have serious limitations on how much it can grow, will extract heavy environmental costs, and remain extremely vulnerable. Moreover, as critic after critic has pointed out, this growth has been confined to a handful of companies, a handful of people. So much so that ruing this growth has become big business for some. The point is not to rue the existence of the handful who have been successful in growing; the point is to create a congenial environment where everyone else can grow. How can one do this?

The only way forward possible is by generalising learning. Indians have a tendency to be caring and relatively non-aggressive as compared to the cultures of Europe and North America. Perhaps this trait can be used to create a supportive social environment where the success of one need not be at the cost of another. What India really needs to do is to create force multipliers so that the size of the pie can increase dramatically. Fighting over who should get what piece of it is irrelevant and a waste of energy. We argue that a generalisation of learning is such a force multiplier.

So what does a generalisation of learning really mean? It means firstly, giving up an obsession with elite education. While the idea of a society led by the elites seems attractive initially, it actually is a failed idea, inappropriate for modern times. And yet, in its obsession with elites, the Indian state has consistently over-invested in institutions like the IITs and the IIMs at the expense of others. No one doubts the value of these institutions. But surely after more than seventy years of continuous financial support, they should have had enough material achievements to be able to stand on their own feet even while providing support to students from an economically weak background? High-achieving students, who excel in scholastics and also in the material world exist in all societies. However, societies show healthy and equitable economic growth only when average skill levels increase.

Come to think of it, even today in India, there are some who did their schooling and college in villages and small towns and who have created much wealth for the nation, without any stamp of elite written on them. Their achievements, unfortunately, are entirely of their own making, without any help from either the state or the society and their numbers are too small to make a difference to society. For example, the wealth of Byju Raveendran, the owner of Byju’s Classes, an educational technology venture, increased by more than 100 per cent during the pandemic from $1 billion to more than $2.5 billion. Raveendran studied in a Malayalam-medium school and graduated from Government Engineering College, Kannur. He refused to join an IIM. He is only one of the many better-known wealth creators who never attended any elite institution.

If only India were to work towards a generalisation of learning and upgrade education in general, that would be the real key to a $5-trillion economy. The skill landscape of the world is changing rather fast. Several surveys say that nearly half the people in the job market today will become unemployable if they do not upgrade their abilities. It is by upgrading the generality of education, by investing heavily in newer skills like artificial intelligence and data analytics that we can vastly upgrade the skills of Indians in the sunrise sectors of the future.

To achieve this kind of upgrade requires very substantial investments, often beyond the reach of the average student. The course fee is only one of the obstacles in the way of poor students. The far greater obstacle is that at the moment, higher education institutions seem to see much more profit in creating small courses for very few students in sectors like artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics rather than teaching such meta-skills to all their students. An engineering course with a specialisation in AI, which is what many engineering colleges are doing, can create an elite cadre. Such a plan cannot re-skill all the students even though these skills will be needed by all of them irrespective of the job that they join.

Actually, given that AI is merely a tool to look at data, it makes far more sense to offer such a course to students of the basic sciences, social sciences, medicine and engineering rather than to create a stand-alone course.

And AI is only one of the emerging tools. Skills in analytical thinking, statistics, cyber security, clinical data management to name only a few, would be critical to any knowledge economy.

Yet the National Skill Development Mission focuses only on very basic-level skills rather than such higher-order skills. Skilling India is far more than merely teaching students how to be better menials, fitters, car painters, nurses, doctors, engineers, journalists, teachers or whatever. Skilling India is essentially about improving productivity at the workplace. Learning is a continuous process, it does not end with student-hood. What we need to do is to send out a direct message that the opportunity to improve and excel is always available and we need to make those opportunities available. For inculcating high-order skills and to improve the average skill set across the board, we need to pay more attention to energising our institutions of higher education.

There are reports that point out the need to future-proof the skills of Indian students and workers. NSSO data says that only 2 per cent of the Indian workforce has any formal training. For those students who do possess formal training, employability remains low. As of today, the Aspiring Minds Employability Survey for Engineers for 2019 says that only 3 per cent engineers possess new-age skills in areas such as AI, machine learning, data engineering and mobile technologies. Among science and social science students, the figure is close to zero per cent.