 |
|
| EDUCATION TRIBUNE |
|
Imparting value-based
education to students Soft skills are a necessity today
|
|
|
Imparting value-based
education to students NO one can contest the fact that the present generation has an enviable access to the ‘best’ of educational avenues, with loads of information at the click of the mouse, at their doorstep. They have huge options to choose from, in terms of courses, specialisations, institutions and so on. A few years back, we in India, particularly those at the helm of affairs in higher education, were quite worried that a very tiny proportion of our young boys and girls enter the higher educational institutions, resulting in a very low rate of enrolment in higher education in comparison to the developed countries. This being an important indicator of development, it obviously pointed at our backwardness in relation to higher education. The agenda was then formulated so that more and more boys and girls could access higher education. To our utter pleasure, we have successfully achieved the goal to a large extent, with a significant improvement in the enrolment rate in higher education. But let us pause and assess as to what kind of human resource our higher educational institutions are churning out. It is an open secret that a huge majority of the pass-outs of these institutions, even those giving out professional degrees, are unemployable because they neither have good communication abilities nor any skills to enter the highly competitive world, whether the corporate or state run. It is a pity that in the recently conducted tests for schoolteachers in Punjab and Haryana, only a few could clear these. How then could we expect such teachers to give us great scientists, doctors, writers or even administrators? Only a small proportion of parents, who can afford, send their wards to ‘good’ schools which enable these children to speak English. It is a different thing that most of them cannot write a single sentence in English in correct grammar. With superficial knowledge in place, the school and college brand name is often used to flaunt the social status both by parents and children. The latest trend is to send children abroad immediately after the matriculation because ‘there is no career in India’. Those who decide, for the love for their country or with an urge to serve their own people, to stay back have to struggle hard to first get admission in their favourite courses/institutions and then get jobs, because you need lots of money for coaching classes, self-financed courses, and you need right connections to get a job. As a teacher I am appalled to see young students in professional courses bribing traffic policemen, officials at the licensing authorities, and at times even their own teachers, for undue or sometimes due favours. What is shocking is that while we never give them lessons to make right decisions, to develop courage to say what is right at the right moment, we definitely, thanks to our education system, are giving them quite efficiently, the lessons in corruption. We teach students that to get good marks they must please their teachers, to get good jobs they must please those at the helm of affairs and to get good postings, they must shelve out loads of money in right hands. By the time our sons and daughters attain the age of 25 or so, they are already well versed in the worldly affairs, courtesy our education system and our parents, who have no time to check their wards when they are getting into these deplorable practices. With smart classrooms in place, students in schools and colleges have access to the best of information, although it is a different thing as to how useful is this information. With the teacher in flesh and blood, as a live role model, as a practical guide disappearing in the bright lights of multi-media gadgets, students learn from laptops and facebook. In fact, the quality of an educational institution is gauged from the fact that it teaches students through laptops! No doubt, we are successfully producing human resource that can connect with the whole world on a laptop, which knows all that is happening in Hollywood but is totally oblivious of his/her own home. Our education system no longer teaches the student that honesty and truthfulness continue to be the most long-lasting assets a human being can possess. It never tells the young ones to come out of their comfort zones and reach out to those who need them. It never teaches them that the cost of one KFC burger is equivalent to the school fees of one poor child for four months. In fact, our education system has segregated children totally. The highly expensive self-financed courses, opted by the rich elite class children, are churning out trainees who can never identify themselves with the ordinary citizens of the country. The question that arises is, what shall we do with such human resource that becomes a parasite for the very society to which it belongs. Do we really need an education system that creates insensitive and corrupt humans who are totally oblivious of their tradition, values, culture and sensibilities? Can we really afford such a human resource? It is time we pause and take decisions lest it is too late. The writer is a Professor in the Department of Sociology, Panjab University, Chandigarh |
|
|
Soft skills are a necessity today EMPLOYABILITY of youth has always been a challenging task in our country. Given the demographic profile, the policy response to youth employability all along these years has not been very satisfactory. This has neither generated enough employment opportunities nor has it empowered youth with competency skills to get employed. Whatever be the reason, the challenge is more veracious today than ever before, as 550 million people are below 25 years of age. In an Assocham-conducted study, barring the top 20 institutions, 90 per cent graduates were not found employable. The scenario gets worse when manpower survey projects 45-50 per cent job vacancy at Tier-II level in search of competent people. Popular employability surveys have found the youth deficient in a variety of skills. In terms of textbook employability criterion, graduates are found wanting in soft skills and right attitude. Another vital aspect identified for non-employability of graduates is the lack of synchronisation between job training and requisites for new jobs. Job training being imparted at professional educational institutions is customised for a manufacturing sector in the perspective which contributes just 16 per cent of new job creation. This mismatch of employable competency and the skill training largely contributes to staggering proportions of unemployability. Also, summer internships and campus placements are in disarray and hardly serve the intended purpose in Tier-II institutions. The most enabling alternative is revamping of summer internships and alumni mentoring of students. Where alumni associations are not strongly enriched in campus life, faculty mentoring can instil confidence and self-belief in students. It requires strengthening of educational institutions with competent faculty and active industry-academia interactions. A more exhaustive response stipulates an autonomous course-designing framework to institutions. These institutions, within the broad parameters, would design their own course curricula and facilitate content delivery with active industry participation. Capacity intake and the admission process then would be customised in such a manner that students would be groomed for instant job placements. Apart from saving training and attrition costs, it would further subsidise the cost of training of students when industry passes on the cost savings to the institution. Alternatively, budgetary provisions should be invested in enabling technology and to design open courseware on the lines being experimented at the MIT, USA. In this framework, the courseware is delivered by the best faculty using satellite technology. Thefaculty in host institutions facilitate, coordinate and counsel students in the efficient courseware delivery. The institutions can thus optimise use of existing building and laboratory infrastructure by offering job-oriented programmes. The writer is a Professor of management at Kurukshetra
University, Kurukshetra |
|
|
Campus
Notes Student poll on Sept 4 POLL to the Students Central Association will be held on September 4. Candidates from the Independent Students Union (ISU), ABVP and NSUI are in the fray for the posts of president, vice-president, general secretary and joint secretary. With the candidature of the Congress-backed NSUI for the post of vice-president having been found ineligible, a direct fight for this post between ISU and the BJP-backed ABVP is expected, while there is a triangular fight for the other three posts between the three student organisations. Student Welfare Officer A.S. Chandel informed that the results will be announced on September 4 after the polls. It may be noted that ever since the direct polls had been announced in the university about 13 years ago, the Congress-backed ISU had been maintaining its stronghold on the Students Central Association. With the Congress now announcing a separate panel under its official student wing, NSUI, it is likely to face a tough contest which could benefit the ABVP. V-C, Registrar plead for
additional financial aid Vice-Chancellor Dr Vijay Singh Thakur and Registrar Rupali Thakur have taken up the case of providing additional financial aid to the university before the state government. The university is facing an acute financial crisis as it is supposed to disburse revised pay arrears to the staff which had retired several years back, along with gratuity of Rs 10 lakh, after the retired scientists had moved the state high court following the failure of the university authorities to grant them their due. University faced a liability of as much as Rs 12 crore on pending arrears alone. With the high court directing the varsity to dispense these arrears at the earliest, the authorities had sought funds from the state government to abide by the court directions. Parthenium Eradication Day The Department of Environmental Science of the university organised “Parthenium Eradication Day” recently. Nearly one thousand people, including scientists, staff members and students, participated in the event. The Directorate of Weed Science Research ICAR, New Delhi, has been organising the “Parthenium Awareness Week” regularly since 2005 to spread awareness among the public about the harmful effects of this weed. Dr S.K. Bhardwaj, Professor and Head, Department of Environmental Science, informed that this weed has been uprooted from about 60 hectare area on the campus and the collected grass will be utilised for the preparation of quality compost/vermi-compost for supplementing the nutrient requirement of crops in the research farm. The Vice-Chancellor, Dr Vijay Singh Thakur, while addressing the gathering, said a nationwide awareness programme and integrated weed management strategy involving all sections of society is required to be implemented to eradicate this weed. Staff attain superannuation The university’s Controller, M.R. Verma, superannuated on August 30. The state government is yet to announce a new incumbent for this crucial post. Dr J.N. Raini, Professor and Head, Soil Sciences and Water Management Department, has also attained superannuation. Though the new incumbent is yet to be announced, official circles are abuzz with the news that the senior most scientist, Dr G.P. Upadhaya, may soon be notified as the new head of the department. — Contributed by Ambika Sharma |
NO one can contest the fact that the present generation has an enviable access to the ‘best’ of educational avenues, with loads of information at the click of the mouse, at their doorstep. They have huge options to choose from, in terms of courses, specialisations, institutions and so on.