Investing in India’s youth

Context: With the largest youth population in the world, India faces the difficult task of educating every citizen to become a productive member of society.

Making India the ‘Skill Capital of the World’:

• Government initiatives:
  • Right to Education Act: Guarantees free and compulsory education for the ages of 6 to 14 years, and is based on books and written examinations.
    • Instituted Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET): to provide specific skillsets and knowledge which they can directly apply in their jobs. 
  • The National Skill Development Policy: Launched in 2009 and revamped in 2015.
  • The Skill India Mission: was launched soon after with aim making India the “skill capital” of the world.
  • National Education Policy (NEP) 2020: aims to provide vocational education to 50% of all learners by 2025.
    • Schools are encouraged to provide students access to vocational education from Grade 6 onwards and offer courses that are aligned to the local economies and can benefit local communities.
• Challenges:
  • Skill Gap: between what is needed by the industries and what is being provided at the educational institutions.
  • Lost jobs and learning: Over 320 million learners have been affected, and more than 5 million young people are likely to have lost their jobs due to COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Challenges in expanding the reach of TVET courses: due to lack of aspiration and stigma attached to jobs( like carpentry and tailoring). - UNESCO’s State of the Education Report for India 2020.

Solutions:

• Information campaigns: involving youth role models will improve the image of vocational education.
• Leveraging existing skill delivery mechanism: A robust coordination mechanism for inter­ministerial cooperation is necessary for unifying the skills development and vocational education systems.
• Expanding evidence-based research: Based on careful data-gathering and analytics, which is useful for creating evidence behind the value of vocational education.
  • For e.g. Proving the business case of apprenticeship to employers can push them to hire more apprentices.

Conclusion: Promoting skills development is prerequisite for India in its effort to capitalise on the country’s demographic dividend.