THe pioneer - media coverage of what after college
WAC Media Coverage – The Pioneer | “The present advancements in technology is going to provide end- less opportunities. What we need is to identify the problems, acknowledge the faults in our system and at least start the execution bit.”
WAC Media Coverage – The Pioneer, The devastating stats that discuss how poorly our graduates fare in terms of job readiness exhibit the ever widening cracks in our education system. lack of experiential learning, skill based education, flexibility in curriculum and many other factors were more or less bound to cause this epidemic; we have been witnessing in terms of graduates having real skills. The most disappointing part is that the old system is engrained in our minds as well the education ecosystem so that changing the whole seems to be a Herculean task to say the least.
While it’s easy to complain and blame the system for the lack of job skills we are seeing among the young ones in our society, the harder part is to understand the macro trends that are causing and well define these problems and solutions that might be suited for those problems.
To add to the misery is the changing nature of work and job roles. Recent job cuts in the IT sector prove that not only do we need to be skilled enough at the beginning of our career but we need to keep learning new things and build expertise even as we move further on our career path. There are some major flaws because of which our education system is struggling today.
The same content, same curriculum applied to all philosophy. What students want to learn is dynamism and so that must be taught to them. This opens up space for personalisation and computerised systems that are adaptive in nature. Personalisation is not new, even in our old systems when children used to be sent to a guru would personalise his teachings based on the child’s interest and capabilities.
However personalising everything for each individual might seem like an impossible task but that is where advancements in the field of big data and artificial intelligence can be utilised. From understanding macro trends like where engagement drops off regarding a particular course or subject among students to devising a personalised curriculum for each student, AI has certainly advanced enough to do that. Although again, just like most of the ideas, the execution though looks desirable, would require a lot of hard-core efforts.
One thing that can be executed easily and is indeed the need of the hour is skill based education and experiential learning. The government has definitely taken some important steps like the Skill India initiative in the right direction and is continuing to do so, but the situation currently is so grave that the execution needs to pull up the socks. There are many recruiters in the recent days, and their lament is exactly what has been represented in stats as well – we have an enormous amount of graduates, but lack of actual talent.
There is not lack of talent. The problem is that the talent is either not appreciated enough or not streamlined and channelised. To continually stay relevant and successful in an industry, one needs to continuously learn especially through self-initiated efforts. One can only self-initiate such efforts when one is intrinsically motivated.
The solution for all this needs implementation on the grassroots level, experiential learning. learning by doing things in a hands on manner as this should be the default method of pedagogy rather than an add-on because it’s not about just creating a skilled workforce but rather creating a mindset among the young ones that enables them to adapt, understand how the world around them actually works and implement what they learn in real life like a savant. Having said that, this would require changes in the course material as well which needs to be more based on practical. If students won’t feel and experience in practical what they learn then how can we expect them to implement those things in their real life.
Even in terms of content, there is high hope from the field of augmented reality and virtual reality. Simulations of real world experiences in VR, engaging exhibition of the pictures in books through AR, the present advancements in technology is going to provide endless opportunities. What we need is to identify the problems, acknowledge the faults in our system and at least start the execution bit.[/bg_collapse]
