How can the alternate learning path help to fulfill a talent shortage in the country!

Recently in one of my whatsapp groups, i saw a forwarded video where a youth was speaking on the shortcomings of India’s education system in a running train. Some of his statements were 1. Poor cant afford a quality education in today’s India 2. Stark difference between Government run schools and private schools 3. Issue of paper leaks 4. Job (Government/Private) challenges after a formal education completion. This followed a discussion in our group and idea of this blog clicked in my mind.

Friends, think on the education system which existed some 500 years back, was it a some school based learning system? Was it a gurukul type of teaching system? I am sure it was not the same as we see it today. Then How young brains were getting educated on the various subjects then? My logic says, There was a farmer father teaching and training his kids on farming while being on the field through his experiences. Now its up to kids to learn, get trained, practice, develop their own experiences and profess in this field or choose to do something else but process of acquiring the skills there too remains the same. If that way of teaching and learning was fine, then what benefits today’s teaching and learning system is giving where the problems that young man was mentioning in the train are still exist but were not present in our old learning system?

One more point to add, not sure about old learning system but today’s one definitely put lots of pressure on young minds. Suicides in kota is a example of that though not directly due to learning system but social pressure created due to such system that If you don’t study well, you dont have good job, good life. So, problem we have is, not everyone gets quality education and thus jobs. Same time, Industry leaders fill we don’t have enough talent to hire. So, what is the solution of this paradox?

I am not a educationalist or councilor to give solutions on this topic. However, i would like to promote another dimension on today’s formal school & college based teaching & learning system which can accommodate those who does not want (or cant) to go through formal education system. What if the school teaches can be taught at home and allow to give the exams in school? What if there is no fail policy till 10th class and no board as well. What if someone just start learning in areas of his/her choice after 10th rather than going through formal 12th/pre/university and acquire relevant skills? Or just enroll those skills based courses than multi year degrees courses? Why cant companies just seek for the candidate who can fix their problems than asking about their colleges and degrees?

Imagine this, there is an opening in IT company, company just asks/gives tasks which candidate suppose to do in the routing job if hired or ask little more than routine also and candidate who did not go through big institutes or formal learning rather acquired skills from other ways solve the problems/tasks. Why would he/she should not get this job?

I do see that informal sectors do this but not the formal ones. Till we don’t accommodate this bunch of talent grown-up unconventionally in formal sectors, i think people’s perception or even aspirants perception towards good job in good companies wont change. Their inferiority complex while performing jobs or getting the job in turn results into the pressure on their kids as they did not find proper place even though having enough skills. India needs to break this cycle. Founders of Meta/Microsoft did not finish their graduations but led high tech projects in their companies.

In summary, I would say, what matters most to the society, economy and largely to the nation is skilled people, no matter from where they acquired it, what matter is giving equal importance (in terms of job roles) and remuneration to them. This would make sure those who could not afford high fees for schools/colleges/impacted due to circumstances accommodated in the system. It is good to see that Indian start-up ecosystems have started a approach in this direction. World is moving fast, we need to increase our skill pool, lets accommodate, train, re-skills them faster than getting stuck at Whats your school/college/university names?

This would largely solve the problem that person was asking in the train, high fees charging schools/institutes which remain out of scope of poor’s now wont lure in names of jobs/placements. Skill is now supreme, keep adding more and more, create a large pool of skilled workers. Nation will benefit from this.

I hope i am able to articulate well enough on bridging poor’s education worry and the skill shortages. I would love to hear your comments!