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| EDUCATION TRIBUNE |
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Don’t
churn out job seekers; develop entrepreneurs UK
pupils ‘not encouraged’ to apply to Oxbridge Campus
Notes
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Don’t churn out job seekers; develop entrepreneurs IT is perhaps for the first time that Indian (and Chinese) entrepreneurs are able to ignore New York, London and Paris and yet build world-class companies worth billions of dollars. The social revolution supported by bold economic decisions initiated in 1991 is at last showing the results. Now, we must foster the conditions that allow the government and the industry to create jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities for our youth in emerging markets. Education has a great purpose, but that purpose must be integrated with the social cause. It is said that “the real education is limited to persons who insist on knowing, rest is mere sheep-herding”. Education is the most critical sector in today’s knowledge economy, but our existing education system encourages only “sheep-herding” and there are very few students who actually have the spirit of inquiry and learn to fit in today’s very tight job markets. Deliverance from ignorance and the attainment of knowledge should be the chief aim of one’s life, because an ignorant man “has eyes but does not see, has ears but does not hear, breathes but does not live”. Although our literacy levels have gone up, it cannot give us any consolation as in absolute terms, more than 40 per cent Indians are still illiterate. Education is essential for moulding youth into responsible citizens to fulfil their social obligations. Education and the social system go together, hence it is only through education that the desired social order is possible. Unfortunately, education does not fulfil these needs of society. The result is that most of the students, who pass out from our universities, colleges and schools, are unfit for any type of employment. The government can absorb only a miniscule number of the educated as part of its social responsibility, which results in vast number of educated unemployed with all kinds of social ramifications. No government has any concrete plan to reduce the yawning gap between education and unemployment. Our education system is churning out job seekers in such large numbers that giving jobs to the unemployed has assumed monstrous proportions. For a politician, these are just the figures which he manipulates to his advantage. There are two dimensions of employment generation. First, for the poor and uneducated families in the urban and rural areas, and second, giving employment to the educated unemployed. Since the bigger vote bank lies in the first category, politicians keep relegating the second issue, knowing it fully well that it can lead to serious social problems. Restlessness in the educated unemployed youth is resulting in incidences of loot, drug abuse and other crimes. Today, the best option available with the government is to develop entrepreneurs at as early a stage as it is possible after a student has received the basic education. Gone are the days when the son automatically inherited his father’s business and he did not need even elementary education. Today, any person must have the essential minimum qualification to be able to survive in business. It only means that education is essential for those who want to become entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship is essential for reducing the large number of job seekers by developing them as job providers. Entrepreneurs are individuals motivated by a will of power; their special characteristic being an inherent capacity to find right answers and passion to overcome fixed talent of thoughts and capacity to withstand social opposition to their ideas. Perhaps becoming a successful businessman is the most difficult job in the world. It may be easier to get through an IAS, IIT, or IIM examination and perform the job responsibilities related with these jobs, but the acid test of the worth of a man is how successful he is as an entrepreneur. In reality, the demand for entrepreneur education is limited due to number of reasons. The traits of an entrepreneur are well known and every successful entrepreneur emphasises such qualities as vision, knowledge and skill, perseverance, hard work and capacity to take risks. These traits are in scarcity, and even if these traits are present in some individuals, it is difficult to identify such people and then spend time and effort to develop them. Gone are the days when illiterate or half-educated persons took up a business activity as a compulsion, as their parents wanted them to continue with the family business. In any case, they could not have found a job with their limited education and skill level. In the changed scenario, the government has very few jobs to offer and there are no secure jobs in the private sector. Therefore, it is necessary that the culture of entrepreneurship as a career option should be introduced to the students at an early stage. Every school and college, engineering and management institutes, in fact, every organisation involved in any type of education or skill development, must have an entrepreneurship cell with special tasks and responsibilities. A special cell created by the government should develop suitable literature, study material, case studies, etc., to train and develop potential entrepreneurs. It is well known that starting your own business and running it is no easy task, especially when you have no previous business experience .Only capable men can finally convert the whole idea into an amazing balancesheet. However, the point to be understood is that an entrepreneur is not a rare character and entrepreneurship is not restricted to those who are gifted with unique traits by birth; these can be developed through planned effort. In fact, entrepreneurship as a career option should be discussed with students after Class XII. Offering young boys and girls the opportunity of entrepreneurship can become a tool of social change, apart from contributing to the important cause of improving economy through enhancement of productivity. Entrepreneurial education is also bound to help the broad objectives of HRD, as in times to come, functional leaders are likely to get replaced by entrepreneurs.
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UK pupils ‘not encouraged’ to apply to Oxbridge FEWER than half of state secondary schoolteachers encourage even their brightest pupils to apply to Oxford or Cambridge, according to a survey by the education charity Sutton Trust. The survey suggests that teachers’ own misconceptions could be preventing students from aiming for places at Britain’s most highly regarded universities — and that the problem is getting worse. With fees set to triple to £9,000 in September, elite universities are under pressure to show commitment to widening access. However, only 44 per cent of state secondary schoolteachers in England said they would encourage their best pupils to apply to Oxbridge, compared with 50 per cent five years ago. The study suggests that many teachers assume the two institutions admit a greater proportion of private school alumni than is the case in reality, or have little clear idea about admission figures. When asked what proportion of Oxbridge students were from state schools, 14 per cent said they did not know. Of the remainder only 7 per cent thought it was over 50 per cent and almost two-thirds thought it was less than 30 per cent. The actual figure is 57 per cent — although this does compare poorly with an average of 88 per cent across all universities. “We need to do much more to dispel the myths in schools about Oxbridge and other leading universities,” said Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of the charity, who described the figures as “deeply concerning”. He added: “It is also worrying that almost all state school teachers, even the most senior school leaders, think that Oxbridge is dominated by public schools. “The sad consequence of these findings is that Oxford and Cambridge are missing out on talented students in state schools who are already under-represented at these institutions based on their academic achievements.” —
The Independent |
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Campus Notes CHAUDHARY Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University's rice research station, situated at Kaul in Kaithal district, has been adjudged the best centre at the all-India level. Dr R. P. Narwal, Director of Research, said in recognition of its outstanding performance, the Directorate of Rice Research (DRR) of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) had declared the RRS, Kaul, as the best AICRIP-Plant Pathology Centre for 2011-12. He said during the 47th Annual Rice Group Meeting held at DRR, Hyderabad, recently, a certificate of excellence had been presented to Dr Ram Singh, a senior plant pathologist, for executing the programme. It may be mentioned that this is the second honour conferred upon the university in the recent past. Earlier, last month, it was declared as the Best All-India Pearl Millet (bajra) Improvement Centre for the year 2011-12. Annual maize workshop Dr R. S. Paroda, chairman, Haryana Kisan Ayog, urged agricultural scientists to accelerate maize production to meet the anticipated rise in demand. He said although today India was in a position to export maize to other countries, there was an urgent need to step up productivity of maize to meet the projected demand of nearly 45 million tonnes by 2030. He was addressing the inaugural function of the 55th All-India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) annual maize workshop at Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University. He said this was not a very difficult target to achieve. "We have doubled the maize production in the last one decade," he said, adding that with the kind of genetic material and research facilities available, the scientists should achieve the target in the next five years. Hailing maize as an amazing crop as it was used as food, feed and fodder, he said an increase in its production would help ensure food and nutrition security to the teeming population. Besides, like America, it would make us able to use it as poultry feed and biofuel. Dr S. K. Dutta, Deputy Director-General (Crop Sciences), ICAR maintained that the production of crops would always remain under pressure due to population increase. To cope with the scientist would need to devise alternatives. Applauding the Single Cross Maize Hybrids developed, he said they had helped break yield barriers in maize production. He also stressed on basic as well as strategic research to find out long-term solution to the production-related problems of crops. Speaking on the occasion, Dr K. S. Khokhar, Vice-Chancellor, Haryana Agricultural University, said there were some states which were contributing less to the agriculture production of the country due to their low productivity. He said to compensate the loss, there was need to produce six million tonnes more maize. He also emphasised on ensuring availability of seed to the farmers to promote cultivation of maize. Guru Jambheshwar University of
Science & Technology, Hisar Four NSS volunteers Geetika, Naina, Nishant of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and Tarun of the Department of Bio-Medical Engineering participated in the “Youth to the Edge Camp” organised by the NSS wing of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in collaboration with the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region at Hayuliang, Arunachal Pradesh, recently. Two NSS volunteers — Geetika in the female category and Tarun in the male category — were declared best campers in the national-level event and received appreciation certificates. — Contributed by Raman Mohan
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D.
S. Cheema