The Reasons

Our Education System

The syllabus we follow till date be it MBA or any graduation program be it BBI, BMS, B.Com is obsolete, we are still following what was taught to our grandfathers in 1960's. Today we are in knowledge worker's age and we are teaching our youth redundant stuff which was followed in Industrial era. Proof of this would be India's poor performance in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests (India ranked 71 out of 73 nations) sparked a raging controversy about the adequacy of our education system. The fact is that in India we are still, by and large, trapped in the paradigm of teaching "content". All over the world (including China), the shift has been towards teaching "skills", that are necessary for making a truly global 21st century citizen.

What are these skills? They are, first and foremost, their ability to ask questions. Unless a child develops that innate curiosity, he /she will be a misfit in the new age work environment. In India, except for the most progressive schools (and how many of those exist?), questioning is seriously discouraged. This is partly the result of cultural conditioning (asking questions of elders is considered disrespectful), partly because of the extraordinarily large number of students in classes, and largely because the teachers do not know the answers.

Attitude of the students

1. Students and youth of India looking for jobs feel that the more fancy degrees/ fancy colleges they have or they go to, the better chances of employment they get which is a myth. A B.Com is considered to be a down market degree by a BMS because he has paid INR 20000 more, an MBA feels he is far better than graduates and will command a much better salary package. However the fact today is MBA's are getting the same jobs which are being offered to the graduates, so who gives the youth this misplaced attitude.

During the course of these degrees the educationist and the education system as a whole keeps the students ego's massaged about the great career that he/she is going to have as they have to ensure their fee installments come on time. It is only at the end of the course when the real picture gets clear to the students who are by now in a hopeless situation.

2. 90%of the candidates i meet are clueless about the job profiles available in banks; they have their own paradigm regarding the jobs which is far from reality. Moreover these days students prefer and are looking for band aids or quick fix solutions, short cuts to success, this is driven from the culture of giving important questions before examinations by teachers themselves and slowly this becomes a habit. Everyone seems to be driven by personality ethic and character ethic is a lost terminology. How to look good, speak well, be more popular has taken over the character ethics like loyalty, justness, integrity etc. 

Political Will

Someone on newshour asked one of the panelist representing the government on food security bill "Why don't you give us jobs we will feed ourselves? What I would have preferred is a focus on reforms in education sector, creating job opportunities, building infrastructure and clearing supply-side bottlenecks." Simply put old proverb aptly echoes my sentiments "Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; show him how to catch fish, and you feed him for a lifetime."