What are the skills relevant for the coming decades? Are our
institutions imparting them? Two important observations stand out especially in
our Indian context:
- There is a growing feeling that more and more focus, especially in India, is given to STEM at the cost of all other subjects. In fact, we can go on to say that those taking up humanities are frowned upon.
- How relevant are the skills being imparted? Do they help the students fit into the society better and prepare them for solving the problems of tomorrow?
Assuming the key focus of education, amongst many others, is
to prepare students for the job market, there is an inherent assumption that
how the job market will look like and what skills would be necessary are well
known. Sorry to throw a spanner in the works!
The rate of change is so fast that a research suggests that 35% of the
skills necessary to thrive in the job market today will be different 5 years
now. Former HCL Technologies CEO Vineet Nayar, once, remarked that 50% of revenues, 5 year
thence, would come from services that did not exist in the present. Though the
statement was made in the context of a specific industry, it applies equally
well. Is this alarming? Yes and No.
Mr Bullrich,
Education Minister of Argentina, succinctly summed it up:
Argentina is making rapid progress. In Finland, the
“teachers” are the best paid and command a huge respect. Self-discovery, team
play and soft skills dominate.
It is worth recalling the following comment:
“We prepare children to learn how to learn, not how to take
a test,” said Pasi
Sahlberg, a former math and physics teacher who is now in Finland’s
Ministry of Education and Culture. “We are not much interested in PISA. It’s not what we are about.”
India has started opening up recently with a view to
discovering the long lost “Liberal Arts and Sciences”. Universities like Ashoka, FLAME, Jindal, Shiv Nadar University
and Krea are some examples where
attempts are being made to help the students discover their true passion. It is
true that data is going to be the oil of this century. That doesn’t mean that
everyone should aim to become data scientist. A combination of analytical,
technical, linguistic skills will be required. No problem of today can be
understood and analysed within a single dimension. To solve the poverty
problem, economic, data, sociological and technical skills will be required. It
is all the more reason that team work will dominate.
Take a step back and go into our own old system. A student
was expected to learn from a variety of areas starting from philosophy, logic,
math etc. Then they were encouraged to discover the areas they would like to
delve deep. Our very own interwoven system of learning was forced into oblivion
and the western influence came. Instead of taking relevant aspects, we
completely immersed ourselves into the new system and rewarded rote memory. In
the process, we also encouraged people who take up science subjects look down
on those who are passionate about history or literature!
Let’s take a look at the skills that are going to be
required to survive and grow:
- Critical thinking
- Creativity
- People management
- Coordinating with others
- Emotional intelligence
- Judgement and decision making
- Service orientation
- Negotiation.
These skills also have a common characteristics i.e. they
cannot be easily done by machines and would still be relevant in the artificial
intelligence dominated world.
Coming back to the universities and institutions of
learning, there is a rush to get higher and higher in the rankings. Common
rankings include QS, ARWU etc. Singapore set up a target,
pumped in resources, hired super star professors, increased throughput and
systematically moved up higher. NUS (National University of Singapore) and NTU (Nanyang
Technological University) are well in the top consistently. China’s Tsinghua,
along with Korea, Japan and HK universities are in the top. We have our very
own IITs/NITs and other eminent institutes. We bemoan the fact that we don’t
have top ranking universities yet. There is a renewed thrust. Does this really
mean the teaching is good and the students are churned to be future ready
learners? We don’t know yet. One thing that these ranking may not take into
account significantly is the effectiveness of teaching at the undergraduate
levels. The ranking may not reflect this adequately. It may reward research or
Post-graduate academics much more. This is where our institutions can make a
big difference. This is not to say that we should stop aiming for high ranks!
How do you impart the quality of “Learning never stops”?
Learning is not a reflection of what has happened so far. If that were the
case, there would be only one way of doing things right. Today’s problems
require not only analysis from multiple perspectives but require tools from
different fields to solve. In Argentina, the new changes ensure the youth are
provided opportunities to learn and practice in their community. We don’t see
many Scandinavian universities in the top 50. I was speaking to one of my
Swedish colleague. His words were to this effect – “There are no elite
universities in Scandinavia and all are equal in terms of quality. Of course,
some are known in specific areas of research. But students go to those
universities not based on the rank but on a host of other factors including
fellow students, teaching quality, opportunities for practice etc.” Their
system of education has been ranked very high. Formal schooling starts at 6 or
later. By that time, in India, we may have enrolled him/her in a coaching
class!
Does this mean a student is allowed to roam around for 3 or
4 years of bachelor program tasting and sampling different courses just letting
time fly? Not at all. If, at the end of the bachelor studies, a student cannot
get up and articulate his or her basic understanding in a well-grounded context
and mastery in a chosen area, the program may not have met its purpose! This is
where I feel that the world is crying out for “specialists” who are grounded
generalists. A biologist with love for poetry can only make the world richer. The
same biologist can take up a lead role in a specific problem involving
endangered species rehabilitation but prepare to take a secondary role in
striking a balance between deforestation and controlled tourism perhaps
allowing a environmental scientist take up a prime position. The world needs
such people who can work in a team and take up varying positions that the problem
demands and allow other perspectives to complement.
Let’s allow our students to
experiment, to make mistakes, to learn from others, to cultivate ability to
live in the society and above all “have an appetite to continue learning”.
References:
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