Because the country's education policies are not in sync with its developmental processes, there is a huge gap in the skills available and the skills needed. While every individual has the right to pursue self-goals, the cumulative and collective process of skill-formation cannot be abandoned
There is something about the state of skill-formation in our country which needs attention. By one estimate, of the three million graduates that are produced every year in this country, over a million plus are of the Humanities and Social Sciences background. Another half million are engineers and another 6,00,000 are BCom graduates. With this kind of skill-formation, it is difficult to make out the kind of correlation that exists between national developmental processes and the wherewithal that is supposed to deliver the result. There are basic questions which stare us in the face to which we have not even started considering the answers.
For example, India is short on high carbon fuel and natural gas — two basic inputs for development and growth. It does not take a genius to recognise that in the city of Delhi alone, where nearly 5,000 vehicles are being put on the road everyday, the roads get more clogged by the hour. The distance which can be covered in 25 minutes can easily take one-and-a-half hours. There is also no knowing how long the same distance would take to cover in operational terms from one day to another, and from one time of the day to another.
There needs to be an estimate of the fuel that is burnt and wasted in the long line of waiting cars and vehicles. Pricing of fuel, flexible or otherwise, alone cannot be the answer to the short supply of fuel. Thought needs to be given to the utilisation pattern as well. It is not just the fuel that is literally being blown up but one must also consider the wastage of opportunity which takes place as people wait to get from one place to another.
The story of match between skill-formation and development, and energy source availability and crass energy wastage, continues in many forms. There is too much talk of ‘equity’, which seems to have become a victim of sloganeering, much liked the talk on ‘secularism’ or ‘inclusiveness’.
One cannot, in the name of anticipated roadblock, leave house at six in the morning to cover a distance of 14 km, which may take anywhere from one and a half hour to three hours. Somehow the argument is so simple that it escapes attention. If just the commuting time could be made more predictable, efficiency would rise many folds. Flexible pricing may suit those who have their eyes glued on the profit and loss statement, but it does not necessarily aid national developmental processes. What is required is an understanding of how one can match skill requirement, skill availability, skill formation and opportunity.
These are not good omens. They are reflection of the times the nation is passing through. In any situation where some individuals keep getting richer and the public keeps getting poorer, somebody has to sound the alarm bell. Consultation cannot be confused with convenience and democratisation cannot be at the price of sabotaging competency. Everyone is entitled to realise his best self. If one is to compete, one should have the same access to opportunity which everyone else has.
The process of skill formation has to be continuous, cumulative and collective. It is too critical a proposition to be abandoned in the name of autonomy to institution. This is especially true where funding is concerned.
Most shopping malls in India retail brand names of non-Indian origin. There is nothing wrong with that. But it does make one wonder why, even after 60 years of independence and much investment in technology, this nation has not produced even half-a-dozen brand names which match the more prestigious ones from elsewhere — be it in the field of cosmetics or clothing or even accessories. We should actually be revisiting our planning processes.