Leapfrogging To Education 4.0: Student At The Core

Shobha Mishra Ghosh Nov 06, 2017

Today we are constantly inundated by various articles about the impact of fourth industrial revolution and the exponential technologies that will keep changing the paradigm of ‘future of work’ and ‘future of living’ at a speed that is incomprehensible to the mankind at present.

The exponential technologies can be clearly segment into:

Physical i.e. intelligent robots, autonomous drones, driverless cars, 3D printing, and smart sensors etc.)
Digital i.e. internet of things, e-platforms and real time data interpretation, analytics etc.
Biological i.e. genomes, synthetic biology, individual genetic make-up, and bio-printing etc.

These exponential technologies have the potential to organise highly unorganized sectors, such as transportation, healthcare, construction, food catering, Handicrafts, software development services etc., disrupting industries by creating new markets, as well as weakening or transforming existing product categories and industries through innovations. While the share of organized sector will increase in the economy and new jobs will be created,it will also make jobs redundant and the existing jobs would require completely new high order skill sets.

The FICCI-EY “Future of Jobs” report 2016 highlights that by 2022, India’s development and growth will be determined by the country’s response to the inevitable impact created by the interplay of three primary forces - globalization, demographic changes and the adoption of Industry 4.0 exponential technologies. It also highlights that 9 percent of youth would be deployed in new jobs that do not exist today and 37 percent would be deployed in jobs that have radically changed skill sets. The World Economic Forum has identified the top 10 skill sets that would be needed in 2020 as highlighted below in the table.

The question then remains to be asked that whether the current education system in our country, which still has the hangover of post British era, will prepare this generation for the uncertain future brimming with opportunities and challenges. Most children in school, or as commonly know as post-millennials or igeneration,will be entering into jobs that are unknown to us today. This generation is markedly different from the children of the 80’s (the baby boomers) or the 90’s (millennials) in terms of exposure, availability of information and content and adaptability to the new technologies.

Educational institutions have the responsibility to enable individuals to be future ready and reduce their rate of obsolescence. With a changing economic scenario where individuals are less averse to industry- and job-hopping, the higher education ecosystem also needs to transform to support shifting socio-economic paradigms. The institutions,regulators, teachers and the learner form the four pillars of the higher education ecosystem. The shift needs to be at all levels – the institutions should remain ahead of the learning curve and make education available 24X7 at affordable costs, the regulators should be innovative and take the enabling role, the teacher should become a facilitator and mentorwhile the individual, the most agile unit, would be switching to non-formal modes of learning as it becomes available.

The FICCI Higher Education Summit for the last 12 years has always deliberated on the topics that are visionary and thought provoking. The 13th edition of the Summit will focus on “Leapfrogging toEducation 4.0: Student at the core” and will be held on 9th – 11th November 2017 at India Exposition Centre, Greater Noida. The FICCI-EY Knowledge Paper on the same theme, looks at the evolution of Education 1.0. (Guru-Shishya methodof teaching), Education 2.0 (massification of education with teacher as the knowledge provider and the student as the passive recipient), Education 3.0 (use of computers & internet in teaching and learning that helped in increasing access and equity) and Education 4.0 (high speed internet, mobile technology, social media platforms etc. facilitating personalized learning anytime anywhere). The paper also suggests the transformation roadmap.

FICCI Higher Education Summit has been one of the Asia’s largest platformsto bring the national and international leaders for sharing their vision, educational institutions to share their best practices, interactions with policy makers and regulators, awards to recognize excellence in the sector and efficient collaboration and networking. The summit is supported by Ministry of Commerce and Industry, GoI, Ministry of Human Resource Development, GoI, Services Export Promotion Council and All India Council for Technical Education. This year Finland is Country partner for the Summit. Andhra Pradesh has associated as the State Partner.

The summit will be an ideal platform to tap the global market and network across the continent with educators, higher educational institutions, service providers and technology companies etc. The summit will witness participation of more than 1000 delegates, 300 international delegates from 50+ countries. We are also expecting more than 150 exhibitors from top of the line Institutions showcasing their best practices to the global participants and will explore collaborations. Reverse Buyer Seller Meet (RBSM) and B2B Meetings will be held with delegates from countries like Finland, New Zealand, Israel, USA, Vietnam, Turkey, European Union, Africa, Middle East and SAARC, etc.

FICCI’s Higher Education Excellence Awards would felicitate achievements of institutions and individuals for improving the quality of Higher Education in India, and for driving themselves & the sector towards increased employability, delivery of quality education, visionary thinking, use of technology and partnerships in improving Higher Education System at large. The award will be given among 12 categories.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article above are those of the authors' and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of this publishing house. Unless otherwise noted, the author is writing in his/her personal capacity. They are not intended and should not be thought to represent official ideas, attitudes, or policies of any agency or institution.