Making our next gen 21st century ready

Not so long ago, India’s population was considered a curse that weighed down prosperity and constricted available
opportunities for advancement. However as the developed world led by USA, Europe and Japan begin to grey, countries faced with the prospect of lack of human resources within their borders, will be forced to look globally to fill
the gap.

This is where the concept of a demographic dividend comes in. India, the world’s second most populous country is also blessed to have a unique situation where its working age youth population is expected to swell over the same
period. Potentially this opens up opportunities for employment and income earning which would resultantly boost government tax revenues too. However all of this hinges on making sure India’s youth are not just educated but
employable.

This distinction is something almost every single businessman and corporate is familiar with. Sadly those who complete their education with required technical skills, still lack the ability to be immediately productive and have typically to be put through a period of formal or informal training before they can start contributing value
meaningfully, to their employers.

The central government too has been alive to this looming crisis and has been attempting to solve this via the National Skill Development Agency and building partnerships with industry through the National Skill Development Corporation. However this is an effort that needs more than just a leg up given the scale at which India must create meaningful jobs for the underemployed and unemployed.

This is why Rotary Club of Bombay (RCB) decided to invite former Sheriff of Mumbai and noted academician Dr. Indu Shahani who is the founding Dean of Indian School of Management & Entrepreneurship (ISME) as the keynote speaker to address RCB members on the topic of ‘Reimagining Education’.

Introducing Dr. Shahani, Rtn Poornima Advani said Dr Indu had stumbled into education almost by accident as she was initially interested in making a corporate career joining India’s largest fast moving consumer goods company
Hindustan Unilever Ltd. However her mother stopped her almost at the final interview saying, ”you will never get as much satisfaction selling soaps and detergents as you will by taking up teaching and bringing a smile to people’s lives,” said Rtn. Advani.

Dr .Shahani complemented RCB President Dr. Batra on his jugaad of getting her to attend meetings by inviting her to speak when, he found his multiple letters requesting her to attend, proved of no avail. She alluded to the demographic
dividend saying 50% of India’s population has an average age below 25. “At the time of independence almost 70 years ago, our first Vice President, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan had said, India’s future will be shaped in her classrooms. This applied to India then and applies even more so now.”

In terms of numbers the education sector in India has taken a quantum leap. Whereas India had around 47 universities in 1950 we have over 700 now. “The most dramatic growth in the higher education sector in the world is in India. Yet Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi said that India needs a 1,000 additional universities,” said Dr.
Shahani. Partly this is because while the population of youth in India is equal to the entire population of Australia and New Zealand, only 24% of these are in schools and colleges. Qualitatively too none of India’s universities, most of whose teachers are overburdened with teaching loads, figure in the list of top 200 research universities of the world. “This begs the question of whether we are producing young men & women who are fit to be global citizens,” queried
Dr. Shahani. She said that the biggest gap between academia and industry was in India as just 16.22% of the graduates of even the reputed University of Mumbai are considered employable.

This possibly has its roots in the curriculum that is imparted to students that isn’t keeping pace with the dynamic changes of the external environment. As a result teachers are often still teaching students what they first taught three or so decades ago. “We are teaching what was good for the 20th century not what is relevant in the 21st century,” said Rtn. Shahani.

She outlined the important activities that parents of students need to perform such as:

• Getting children to do chores
• Teaching them social skills
• Having high expectations from their wards
• Teaching them maths early in their lives
• Valuing effort
• Being less stressed and developing relationships with their kids.

Sadly she said, these days academicians such as her, have more problems with parents rather than with the students themselves.

According to her, students need to be made ready to deal with an external environment characterized by volatility,
uncertainty, and ambiguity. This calls for developing certain skills such as communication, collaboration and critical thinking in students. To do this one needs  an experience based, not a curriculum based education. The way ISME, which is merely two months old is going about it, is a synthesis of distance learning B.A. and B. Com. degrees from University of Mumbai, supplemented by imparting 21st century skills to its students.

However that alone isn’t enough as India isn’t producing enough new jobs in relation to the number of new children being born each year. “25 million babies are born every year in India but only two million new jobs are being created
in India,” she said. This is why Prime Minister (PM) Modi has not only been trying to step up job creation with programmes such as Skill India & Make in India but also foster entrepreneurship through programmes such as Startup India. By diverting our human resources to actually pursue the more rewarding economic activity of starting new businesses and thus creating new jobs rather than seeking them, PM Modi is trying to pursue value creation
opportunities for our citizens.

Indians have traditionally been quite entrepreneur oriented as is illustrated by the millions of small traders scattered through the length and breadth of the country. However, “while entrepreneurship can’t be taught, we can create an ecosystem fostering entrepreneurship,” said Rtn. Shahani.

For example, she cited was how ISME is trying to bring boardrooms to their classrooms by having students sit in, on company board meets, followed by interactive sessions between the board of directors and students. The first such board meeting was that of the Shapoorji Pallonji controlled, privately controlled Eureka Forbes. “Clariant (on whose board Dr. Shahani serves) and the Siemens global board will also be holding their board meets at ISME,” she said.

She believes that the time has come to disrupt and redesign our education pedagogy. She said that Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India) recently remarked that he would like to see ISME become one of India’s world class universities. To do this the institution is integrating technology via the use of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) offered by the best institutions worldwide and synthesizing best practices from institutions such as London Business School, Wharton School USA etc. “Concepts can be taught via MOOCs but we aren’t done with the chalk and the talk to impart context,” said Rtn. Shahani.

“If there can be Make in India, Skill India and Digital India then my dream is to have a Study in India,” she added.

Dr. Shahani who has been associated with Rotary since 1996 said she saw the good work being done by Rotary and has grown with it. She remarked that she loved the way the current President was managing RCB and ensuring people mix with each other.

Rtn. Roda Billimoria, Hon. Treasurer, RCB who proposed the vote of thanks exclaimed that there was no voting needed, as the thanks were unanimous for the enlightening speech that was delivered. “Indu is an exemplar of women power with care, compassion and welfare of students,” said Rtn. Billimoria. She surmised that the main thrust of the speech was that we need to make education more relevant so as to make students reflect on the needs of society and cultivate the powers of lateral and critical thinking.

“The old adage of, do not dream things that were and ask why but dream things that never were and ask why not, is most apt to describe the need for change,” concluded Rtn. Billimoria.