Are skills getting priority in our education system ?

A NASSCOM survey carried out in 2019 reveals that only 2.5 lakh of around 15 lakh engineering graduates that come out every year are employable. This speaks volumes about the quality of our education system, which consists of 80% theory with little exposure to real-life situations and hands-on experience. In our system, focus is still more on issuing degrees or diplomas and less on skill development. When

The Hans India spoke to people on the issue, almost all of them emphasised the need to impart skills suitable for industry to the students through measures like internships, intense practical training, etc.'

To make our students ready to compete globally, the education system should adopt updated technology related curriculum with a focus on practicals, skill development, innovation and creativity along with sports. Universities need to add student choice based add-on courses in curriculum and need to provide credits for those courses. There should be a comfortable window system for colleges to offer such add-ons. To fill the gap between industry and academia, universities should encourage students to take updated skill development courses which are job oriented.

K Venkata Gurunatham Naidu, Entrepreneur, Tirupati.0

Along with degree courses, students need to be trained in skill development in any of the skills as per their interest. It plays an important role in the career prospects of the youth and they can come out of the campus with a degree and a certificate in skill development with which they can survive even if they find any job or not. But, the government should establish more skill development labs at university level and each lab should offer training in selected skills.

Dr Y Mallikarjuna Rao, Lecturer, SPW College, Tirupati

The government should take steps to start self-orientation courses like in China, US, Canada from Class VIII to PG courses so that the students can study courses they are interested in and improve their skills. Some of them may start small scale units for self-employment. It is difficult for any government to provide jobs to all the students. There is a need to motivate the students to start units for self-employment. Similarly, the students studying diploma or engineering courses can acquire skills and start small scale industries.

Ch Joseph Sudhir Babu, ZP school teacher, Guntur

We are seeing a shifting trend in the education system today. There is a larger focus on developing skills. This is basically because people are gradually realising that when they perfect a set of skills, they can excel much better and flourish in their careers compared to those who have a mere degree certificate and lack practical exposure. Although customised skills are required to equip students and make them industry-ready, there is still a long way to go in terms of progress towards this direction. Apparently, possessing required skills play a key role in any field and students should consider honing them while they are pursuing their graduation itself so that their chances of gaining placement are quite high.

DB Uday Kumar, Correspondent, Keystone School, Seethammadhara, Visakhapatnam

Education should enhance the skills of the students, but unluckily the present education system is making the students run after marks, then knowledge and skills. Now, the skills of the students are very basic and negligible when compared to the expectations of the industry. The government should bring necessary changes in changing the situation. The UGC, AICTE, universities and other stakeholders should revise the curriculum every two to three years, to meet the demand of the industry by the time the students graduate from the college. The conventional degree students, engineering students or any other professional students should have skills of their trade, by attending internships and training. The government and the industries also should form a body to work with the APSSDC to train the students in the courses required for the immediate employment, and a bridge program to give opportunities to those people, who took a break in their careers, like housewives, mothers or people failed to pass the course with their batch.

Thota Naga Jyothi, DPM, District Panchayat Office, Ongole

It will be necessary for creating awareness among the youth on the need to pursue skill development related courses in this competitive world. Especially, parents should encourage their children to pursue skill development courses instead of general studies. Earlier, both states and Central governments promoted vocational courses which were meant to develop skills like Industrial Training Institutes, Polytechnics. After introduction of information technology, students and parents are focusing on only IT related courses. Studying skill-related courses should be made compulsory, instead of offering them optional subject.

Ch Purushotham, District Information & Public Relations Officer, Annamayya district