India's demographic (dis)advantage ?
Rajan Kshirsagar, general
secretary of the All India MGNREGA Employees Federation reveals an interesting
and startling fact in his blog that: “Thirty percent (30%)of the NREGA workers in rural Maharashtra are
graduates and 20 percent of the workers are post-graduate.’’
Paying them Rs 127, per day is
too little, argues another editorial website.
I don’t want to comment on the
actual money paid to MGNREGA workers. I even don’t want to ask whether payment
for work be dependent on the nature/economic benefit of work performed or the qualification
of worker??
The MAIN problem, as I see is this:
Why even graduates and post
graduates (requiring 15-17 years of education), aren’t skilled enough to hold semi
skilled jobs like Gramrojgar Sevak under MGNREGA have to demand further
training?
If such is the case, then doesn’t
this prove that the education standards in the country are actually abysmal and
useless? They provide absolutely no practical use or training to students who
are putting in 15-17 years of their life being “educated”? “Purists” may argue that
education should not be seen as a means of employment but should be a source of
knowledge.
I differ. I believe that if even after
putting in roughly 70% of their life at schools and colleges, at 21 years of
age, if the graduate is unable to find ANY jobs without going in for some kind
of training or coaching, then what is the point of all this academic drama? To
put it bluntly, old school todays BA, BSc and BComs taught throughout colleges
in India are actually a waste of taxpayers’ money and a dangerous play with the
future of India.
Most of the students are aware of
this problem, but the problem is that there isn’t ANY viable alternative
available for the formal education system system. Most of the well to do students
know that these courses are a waste of time and instead prepare for Engg./ CA /
CS / MBA / MCA / CFA etc. other qualifications which will at least help them
secure some employment.
But sadly, the vocational
training options end there. Rest of India is forced to be content with ITI / IT
software or Hardware courses which are of dubious quality and often don’t train
students adequately enough to properly grasp and master the subject.
Some data Googled from the
internet says:
Every year 5.5 million students
pass out of Class X, of which 3.3 million go to Class XI, leaving 2.2 million
out of the education stream while those who drop out after Class VIII are
approx. 20-21 million. Meanwhile, the Available formal training capacity of the
country is just adequate of only 2.3 million students.
In the global markets India’s main strength was of having a
large young workforce.
However, this may well become a ticking time bomb if the current system continues
to produce unemployable “graduates” and “Post graduates”.
Is anybody
listening??
Nice thought Lalit. Gives a new dimension.
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