The Union Government intends to launch the National Skills Mission to consolidate the initiatives spread across its 20 ministries/departments which run around 70 schemes. Practically, all other departments and ministries are also directly or indirectly associated with skill development. The Budget 2015 reiterates, in unequivocal terms, that skill development is the key to utilise the young manpower that India is blessed with. There are two major facts that deserve serious consideration while preparing plans and programmes to suitably train the young to meet manpower requirements in India and abroad. Interesting population projections open up new avenues worldwide as 25 per cent of world’s labour force shall consist of Indians by 2025. The figures on percentage of workforce with education up to Class IX or more brought out by the skill development ministry are revealing: compared to 53 per cent in China, 50 per cent in Australia and 48 per cent in Germany, India has shockingly low percentage of 1.5 only.
Catching Them Young is the Key to Skill Acquisition
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In his letter forwarding the Report of the Education Commission (1964-66), Professor D S Kothari expressed the hope that the report “will provide some basic thinking and framework for taking at least the first step towards bringing about what may be called an education revolution in the country”. In this letter, while mentioning the main points, he put the first one as “introduction of work experience (which includes manual work, production experiences, etc.) and social service as integral parts of general education at more or less all levels of education”. Specific recommendations were made to vocationalise secondary education.
The implementation of the 1968 National Policy on Education in respect of imparting skills and vocationalisation of education suffered mainly because of lack of respect and acceptability in society. Lack of suitably trained teachers in schools and absence of teachers equipped to handle vocational courses at secondary level also contributed adversely. Bureaucratic hurdles dampened whatever enthusiasm was generated in some places. Even now, certain suggestions are being floated to begin skilling after Class VIII. This would be disastrous in thought and practice. It is the elementary stage that determines the direction in which the learner talent could be supported and assisted. If children are exposed to working with hands, individually and in groups, and thus made to develop respect making things and creating new ones, they are more likely to opt for higher levels of skills and vocational courses as they grow up. China has successfully done it and each elementary school has a ‘school factory’—a room that displays whatever children have made and created. An attitudinal transformation can be achieved only if the teachers are ready, if the right teacher-taught ratio exists, and if the schools are permitted to utilise locally available expertise. To meet the needs of young persons who have completed elementary stage already, the strategic path is clear: design specific skill acquisition programmes to match the ascertained market needs. The training modules shall have to be done afresh for each course. These shall have the common element of human values and ‘learning to work together’ in diverse climatic, linguistic, cultural and religious contexts.
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