Education 5.0 for a $5 trillion economy?

How is the Indian higher education infrastructure shaping up to help India become a $ 5 trillion economy??

All of the factors that make up a quality city – safe streets, high paying jobs, strong neighbourhoods, etc. –?emanate from a strong educational premise.

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A strong educational premise is also necessary for a robust economy – one that is growing at a healthy rate, generating employment and ensuring a good standard of living for its population. If this is indeed the case, how does the Indian education infrastructure measure up to deliver on these and to the target to become a $ 5 trillion economy by 2025?

The disturbing news first. ‘Education as Disguised Unemployment’ – in this Business Standard article of August 16, 2022 (https://bit.ly/3My23Z5), Mahesh Vyas, MD & CEO, CMIE, has made a data-based case that India’s labour force (not to be taken as blue collar only) between 2016-‘17 and 2021-‘22 has got older and less educated. During the same period, while the share of 15-24 age group in the total population increased from 26 per cent to 28 per cent, this age group’s participation in the labour market has fallen. The inference is that the labour market could not absorb the additional labour that became available through the natural process of growth in population.

A related problem is that the educational qualification of the workforce is deteriorating.?Share of graduates and post-graduates which was at 12.5 per cent in 2016-'17 fell to 11.8 per cent in 2019-'20 and has recovered only partially to 12.2 per cent. He makes the point that this sudden fall in graduates among the employed and their incomplete recovery does not bode well for India’s competitiveness.

With this backdrop, it would be interesting to capture some key threads in higher education, mostly to do with changes expected under the New Education Policy (NEP 2020) and otherwise in India. And how these might help make youth more employable so that India reaps the young demography dividend, which is otherwise threatening to become a demographic disaster.?

New Education Policy (NEP 2020)

Some of the key provisions in the NEP are aimed at streamlining regulations for higher education in India – a single overarching body in Higher Education Commission of India should bring uniformity in norms for regulation, standard setting, funding and accreditation, irrespective of the public or private status of an educational institution. These provisions should ensure smoother academic administration and also create a level playing field for educational institutions wherein the most important criteria will be the quality of academic delivery and research driven innovation.

Common University Entrance Test (CUET)

University Grants Commission is planning to merge the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET UG) and Joint Entrance Examination Main (JEE Main) into the Common University Entrance Test (CUET). As per the commission, this move may ease the examination logistics for aspirants, especially those who are aiming for careers in engineering and medical streams. Under the new proposal, the students can just appear for one entrance test, instead of individually writing tests for Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. The students can then opt for their desired stream based on the results. Besides eliminating the multiple entrance exams, this should help students better assess their aptitude and select a higher education stream that aligns with their career interests.

Professors of Practice

Universities and higher education institutions in India will soon be able to hire distinguished experts as faculty members under a new category – “Professors of Practice” (PoP) for which formal academic qualification and publication requirements will not be mandatory. Experts from fields such as engineering, science, media, literature, entrepreneurship, social sciences, fine arts, civil services, and armed forces among others will be eligible to be hired. There’s a lot of merit in UGC Chairman, M Jagadesh Kumar’s view that engaging PoP will promote integration of academic scholarship with practical experience. And therefore make graduates more employable.

Foreign Universities in India

The rules allowing foreign universities to set up campuses in India have been firmed up; this is being steered by the finance ministry through the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA). Regulations have been defined to ease entry of globally top ranked universities into India and the expectation is that with the necessary parliamentary approvals, a foreign campus is likely to be operating with the first batch by September 2023.

In parallel, The National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC) has roped in foreign universities like Harvard Business School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Australia’s Deakin University to enable candidates from small towns to benefit from international employability programmes at subsidised rates under Skill India Mission.

It will be interesting to see how both these initiatives will raise the bar for academics and more importantly, help create globally employable talent.

5G Rollout

According to an India Mobile Broadband Index 2022 report released by Nokia, research agency Global Data’s projections show that there will be 329 million 5G customers in India by 2026. While these will still be only 30 per cent of the mobile subscribers, it should still bring lower tier towns within reach of educational institutions willing to try technology-led modes of academic delivery; this, even while EdTech companies are recalibrating their business model to coexist with offline players in post-Covid times.

In this respect, after entertainment and gaming, education may be the next big gainer from the 5G services. In conjunction with products like Bahubhashini (an IIT showcased project - a programme which enables a real time conversion of one language to another, meant for students who are more comfortable with regional languages), 5G services will ensure that location will not be a disadvantage for anyone seeking learning and employment.

Education 5.0

All of the above will play out asynchronously, but can still be expected to come together in 3–5 years if not earlier, to represent what may be termed as Education 5.0. When it does, higher education will be an altogether different playing field. Global competition, new models of pedagogy, industry engagement, skill development and employment opportunities will come into being. In this scenario, only the fleet-footed and forward looking institutions will thrive. Time to realise that what got you here won’t get you there!

References:

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