Enrich Indian Education With The “Dual – System” To Become An Economic Superpower

Jagannath V. Kallakurchi Pradipta Bajerji Jun 08, 2019

India is investing billions of rupees in “skill India programme”. It is a program to encourage Indian citizens to be a skilled workforce. There is a specific budget allotted for this particular programme and the budget is utilized in a manner that it covers programme benefits to the deserving for multiple years. The skilled workforce programme helps the public to find a livelihood in the job market and for some to become an entrepreneur.

The skill India programme is a great initiative; it is the first step towards India to become an economic superpower in the coming years. To achieve significant progress in increasing the skilled workforce and GDP of the country, I strongly believe the skilled workforce is one of the key ingredients in the eco-system. Resulting in attracting foreign direct investments (FDI).

As per available researched data, only two per cent of the total workforce at present is treated to be officially skilled in India. For a fact, we all know that a skilled workforce is much more than two per cent at any given point of time. The large corporates both in public and private sectors are investing a huge amount in training their existing and prospective employees. The training investment is through their period of employment thus making them skilled employees.

Additionally, one of the key reasons for the shortage of certified skilled workforce in India is due to 27% of dropout rate (as per MHRD statistics, 2014) of students. This dropout usually takes place while a student is transitioning from middle school (after completing 8th grade) and entering into the secondary school (9th grade). Those who desire to be known as qualified and skilled, the Indian educational system demands a student to have successfully completed 10th grade. The dropout rate is high, attributed due to lack of tangible economic returns perceived by the parents and students. The current job market provides similar salaries and position even after completion of 10th or 12th grade as against 8th grade.

The reason for such a low percentage of the skilled workforce on record is due to the lack of a single qualified government agency to register and monitor one’s progress. It is essential to help the skilled workforce financially to enhance skills to be relevant in the dynamic job markets until official retirement. Innovative methods need to evolve in the engaging skilled workforce for lifelong learning platforms

The Government of India (GoI) should make more efforts in educating its citizens to be aware of skilling India initiatives and its tangible economic benefits. An innovative educational system evolved to address, the continual needs of the skilled workforce, upgrading the existing workforce and address on hand challenge of high dropout rates. Reducing dropout rates will partially address the shortage of skilled workforce requirements. The new age Indian & MNC companies in the sectors like IT, manufacturing and services sector are experiencing a severe shortage of skilled workforce impacting their growth plans.

It’s time for India to develop and implement the dual educational system. It is a lifelong learning platform providing both vertical (classroom training) and horizontal learning (training and on job skill acquisitions). These two components (vertical and horizontal learnings) of the dual system are independent of each other with different ownership and independent funding. ,

In the dual system, a person earns credits for all internal training programme which he/she undergoes on the job consistently year on year along with skill improvements. These training program’s instructional methods and syllabus need to be validated, recognized, regularized and approved by a GoI body. It is applicable at the institutional level for both public and private sector organizations. These credits earned will help a citizen to enter into further education laterally whenever he/she wishes to pursue further in life.

In case a citizen wishes to pursue further higher education at the university level in the latter part of his/her life to seek admission should be through a credit system also. The credit system is an alternative to regular educational qualifications to meet the pre-requisite for admission into the course.

The dual system of education encourages a student/citizen to pursue education during his/her entire life. It will help a student entered into the job market at an early age attributing to several reasons including household incomes need.

It will be a great idea for Government of India to involve Industry, educational Institutions, industry associations along with few out of box thinking individuals in building strategies and processes for dual systems. It will key contributor in the ecosystem to help India to attain economic superpower in the coming years. To achieve this goal, GoI needs to set up one ministry as single ownership for accountability and administration for education in India including skill development.

To conclude, there are a variety of skilled jobs are available in India. However, there is a shortage of skilled people. Lack of skilled workforce is also one of the key challenges in achieving industry output and generation of employment, thus impacting the GDP growth of India.