Education segment needs bigger funds: Expert

According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), India's unemployment rate fell to 6.67 percent in September from 8.35 percent in August. The Union government has also come under heavy criticism for not doing enough to create job opportunities.

Founder and Director, Triumphant Institute of Management and Education (T.I.M.E.), Manek Daruvala says that though India has seen a surge in the number of graduates coming out of colleges every year compared to a couple of decades ago, unfortunately India is not able to reap the benefits of this as the quality of graduates being churned out by the education system is leaving a lot to be desired.

"This is potentially great news and is in line with the population dividend advantage that our country is hoping to benefit from. With the focus on rote learning, which does away with application-based approach, the academic credentials that students claim based on their marksheets ring hollow in many cases. Industry leaders have long been lamenting the lack of employability skills among our graduates. To make matters worse, the poor communication skills they possess means that these graduates are unable to function effectively in any kind of team environment. This is an important reason for many graduates, including technical graduates to remain unemployed," he tells The Hans India.

He suggests improving the quality of teaching across the education spectrum would remove the impediment that comes in the way of churning good graduates.

"Even at college/university level, those who excel academically are lured by high paying jobs into the private sector, or even worse, into jobs/education outside the country. This largely leaves only the not-so-great-academically folks who seek an entry into the teaching/research professions. Inculcating communication skills and social interaction skills in students on a large scale needs work from the grassroot level, i.e. at primary school curriculum level," he states.

Even as the government promises an increase in spending on education, the share of the union budget allocated to education fell from 4.14% in 2014-15 to 3.4% in 2019-20. Ask Daruvala the steps to be taken to bridge the gap even if the GDP is on a slippery slope, he believes that more important than allocation is the question of how effectively the allocated money is utilised.

"I would always prefer lesser money utilised more effectively than vice-versa. Hence, I believe that the government should ensure that, in spite of the lower allocation, a much bigger sum would eventually get effectively spent. If that is done, we are more steps closer to bridging the gap than a mere increase in allocation. The inefficiencies in the system are so glaring that they just have to be addressed on priority. There is probably a decent case for considering direct cash transfers for education," he says.

The trend has been such that engineering graduates prefer opting for MBA. "In today's devalued world of education, I would even recommend that one should focus on post-graduation as the minimum goal. This would be the only way in which people can differentiate themselves from the huge numbers graduating every year. The PG could be an MBA or in any other stream of their choice. There would be many paths before a graduating student. While MBA is undoubtedly one of the best choices available, each path has its own merits and students would be wise to choose the path keeping their constraints and strengths in mind, instead of just following the crowd. That said, the simple advantage of doing an MBA after an engineering degree is that it is one of the most in-demand combinations and will ensure a smooth passage towards a job of one's choice," Daruvala opines.