India going to be the Vishwa Guru of the world?

The Vice President of India, M Venkaiah Naidu had once called upon for making India Vishwa Guru and the hub of innovation and knowledge once again. He said, “We can be Vishwaguru once again only if we can make the quest for excellence the norm.” Indeed, the country that showed the whole world its academic brilliance through Sushrutha, Kanad, and Aryabhatta deserves to gain the same pedestal of being “Vishwa Guru” again. The outlook of the present Union government towards education has been paramount positive in this respect and steps taken by the government has been successful to a certain extent. As per NCERT and MHRD portal details, research and development was the focal point at higher education level for many Indian institutes. The number of patents filled by IITs increased from 599 in year 2015-2016 to 726 in 2019-2020 taking innovation to a new high in India. Schemes such as STARS, IMPRESS, IMPRINT, PMRF, SPARC, STRIDE were implemented which subsequently derived large scale goals promoting India-centric research projects in science and other disciplines that are inter-disciplinary and transnational in outcome. These strides have proven India’s acceptance in education at a global platform.

However, after these large scale steps the question remains – are these enough? The QS world university rankings published by Quacquarelli Symonds released their Top 1000 list of institutes from all over the world recently for 2021. Only three Indian Universities made it in Top 200 list. And not a single university of India was in top 100 universities of the world. All three institutes are IIT’s where IIT Bombay is ranked at 172nd position, IISc Bangalore is at 185th position while IIT Delhi is at the 193rd position. In The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020, not a single Indian university made it to the top 300 list.

One can say that the world rankings are biased against India due to transnational impact, it may be untrue due to geographical differences. If this is the case then why India's unemployment rate continues to hover above 24% as per the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE)? Is there a problem in our education system or teaching process or something else? The one thing on which we can agree upon is there is a problem in education impartation process in India. To find the problem, we have to delve on the criteria on which these organisations decide the world rankings. The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020 focus areas were teaching learning environment, research, citations, international outlook and industry outcome. The last two of the above is of paramount importance in this regard.

Are we focusing upon skill based learning bringing out clear industry outcomes for our students? Are the students who are being admitted into the top universities getting world class education? The 2030 Skills Scorecard by the Global Business Coalition for Education focuses on these concerns. It says that in 2030, India will have the highest number of secondary school graduates in South Asia, but nearly half of them will lack the skills to enter the job-market. Adding to the point, economist Shamika Ravi writes, “It says something about the quality of Indian education; too many engineers and other professionals are waving around degrees that are relatively worthless.”

The situation, if not insurgent but is alarming. Establishment of Ministry of Skill Development And Entrepreneurship was a positive step that the government did take and which had profound results too. Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), SANKALP (Skills Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion), UDAAN, and Polytechnic. Schemes have brought out skills amongst the marginalized sections of the country. However, a lot has to be done and government and private educational machinery has to go hand in hand to bring the change. World class education has to reach each student who then, as per his or her capacity, will help in carving the future of our country.

The onslaught of COVID-19 has myriad side effects on the education sector as a whole. To maintain social distancing and keep education going on, online teaching has been adopted by many universities and educational institutes. It is being seen now as the band aid treatment for education. But will online teaching be able to impart the skills and exposure that a classroom and laboratory does? The answer to this can be given after at least one academic year of implementation of online teaching. But can online teaching replace classroom and laboratory experience – the answer being a clear NO. Studies suggest that children learn better through face-to-face interaction and group study also helps in developing the communication skills. And academicians have said that student teacher interaction and student student interaction is best in a class rather than virtually.

The COVID-19 menace is moreover an opportunity rather than a problem. Amidst this pandemic many countries had to airlift students from other countries who were stuck in unsafe environment. Consequently, it is been seen that parents are not willing to send their students abroad for safety concerns. With 35% of its 1.3 billion populations below 15 years of age, there will be increase in number of students who want to get admitted to institutes with world class education imparting system.   

India, by 2030, will have around 140 million people in the college-age group. Can the country live up to its aims of delivering a world-class higher education system? If India can bring in world class education into its geographical boundaries and an educational institute comes up ranking in top 100 best educational institutes of the world, then this will be landmark achievement in itself. And it is possible. India has the largest English speaking youth in the whole world making it devoid of any communication barrier. In other words, international faculty members can be brought in to train students and teachers in India to transfer key knowledge and skills and improve education at large.

The India Skills Report 2019-20 states that only 46% of students were found to be employable. This clearly means that Indian education has to be focused on skill based education. Classroom or digital teaching learning should be more inclined towards teaching skills rather providing knowledge. Be it technical skills like editing, designing, and/or manufacturing process or soft skills like communication, leadership and/or behavioral skills, student need to know how best to work in the industry and as per corporate expectation from day one. With the internet providing all type of information, the teaching fraternity has to renovate their methods and content of teaching. Just completion of syllabus and sticking to instruction plan in class can be done by artificial intelligence computer in coming future. The institutions of future will demand teachers having world class exclusive information and skills gained through personal experience.

It is not only skilling but re-skilling which is extremely significant that educational institutes mostly ignore. Of course faculty development programmed is part of re-skilling process but it’s a start and there is lot to cover. One such example is what communication giant AT&T has done. It has invested with its workforce for its future ready reskilling program $250 million per year. It identifies where every job is headed and provide workers with training they need to prepare for roles that have a future. This has to be emulated in academic institutions as well.

Bringing in creativity in the areas and process of teaching is very important. Educational institutions should give reward for creativity amongst teachers as it will foster innovating amongst them. As it is said, howsoever knowledgeable facts you tell in class, a boring class is a no class. Teaching is not only about knowledge and skills but is also about how you impart that- the process. Teaching is a presentation and has to be interesting and interactive, only then the knowledge and skills imparted will give results. Implementation of massive technology and infrastructure for innovation and research is important and this will garner points to enhance in rankings.

Strategies are required to prepare the higher education sector for the evolving demand – supply trends across the globe — particularly those related to the global mobility of students and faculty and improving the quality of and demand for higher studies in India. And the problem areas are not the teaching learning process but the mindset of education impartation. Education impartation has to be a mission and passion rather just being an alternative to industrial career for teachers. Universities have to focus on their human resource – teachers who should have fine class presentation and skills rather than just degrees. And the change will come when young academicians become entrepreneurs and start academic institutions which will have outcome based teaching learning environment, innovative research that impacts common man, has a world class international outlook and teach skills that are needed in industry now and in future, which I am sure will happen sooner than we have ever thought. And that will make India the “Vishwa Guru” of the world.

(The author is a Senior Academician & Associate Professor)