Millions of Indian graduates are unemployable
Few will disagree that India's education system has long given up the pretense even of contributing to the larger civilisational process of man-making and character-building, as these concepts have been understood through the ages from Socrates to Swami Vivekananda. Even its crown jewels in education can at best claim to churn out what TS Eliot termed as “technological savages” and “intellectual brutes”. But now it seems that even in this limited pursuit — of training students to become competent professionals who can hold down a paying position — Indian institutions are failing. According to a recent study conducted by an employability solutions company, a whopping 47 per cent of Indian graduates are not employable in any sector of the knowledge economy. In other words, almost half of the more than five millions youngsters who graduated from a Bachelors programme this year alone have no saleable skills that will allow them to make a decent living. The study, conducted by Aspiring Minds, only focussed on non-professional, degree-holders and found that only 2.59 per cent of those surveyed could take up ‘functional roles' such as accounting while less than 16 per cent were good enough for entry level sales jobs. Even clerical jobs, which should be within the reach of any college graduate, were out-of-bounds for almost 65 per cent. According to the study, two factors are responsible for this — first, poor English skills and second, inadequate computer skills. Many respondents were lacking in basic language abilities, despite 16 years of education in the English medium, while an overwhelming number failed to perform basic tasks such as cut-copy-paste on the computer. These problems were pronounced in students from smaller towns who were unable to bridge the gap even after they moved to the metros. Additionally, the study also found that students still suffer from the old Indian problem of rote learning. They were able to theoretically define an accounting concept but unable to apply it in practice.
The Aspiring Minds report is only the latest in a long list of studies that point to India’s failing education system. Apart from reports on the abysmal condition of school education (many middle school students can't read simple sentences in English or do basic arithmetic), the National Sample Survey Office, for example, has found that almost seven crore Indians are either unemployed or underemployed. Similarly, the National Association of Software and Services Companies has reported that not more than 30 per cent of the country’s engineering graduates are employable. Against this backdrop, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's addition of a fourth ‘E' for employability, to the triad of “expansion, excellence and equity” that defines the University Grants Commission's mandate would have been heartening had only his Government's other education initiatives delivered better results.