54 per cent of South Asian youth leave school without the necessary skills, what's the solution? Change assessment & education system
An estimated 54
per cent of South Asian youth leave school without the necessary skills to get
a decent job in the next decade, according to data produced and released
on Thursday, by the Global Business Coalition for
Education (GBC-Education), the Education Commission,
and UNICEF.
"Every day,
nearly 100,000 young South Asians – a large sports stadium of young people –
enter the labour market, almost half of them not on track to find 21st century
jobs,” said Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director, in the report.
The report
further adds that south Asia is at a critical juncture, with a limited window
during which it can reap significant demographic dividends from its talented
and capable youth.
With almost half
of its population of 1.8 billion below the age of 24, led by India, Pakistan
and Bangladesh, South Asia will have the largest youth labour force in the
world until 2040.
The report cites
a recent UNICEF ‘Voices of
Youth’ survey conducted among 32,000 young people in South Asia reveals
concerns among these under 24-year-olds about how well they are being prepared
for the modern economy.
According to the
poll, many young people in South Asia feel their education systems are outdated
and do not prepare them for employment.
The young people cited
lack of work experience (26%), inadequate support services to improve
employability (23% received no support and most received limited and not
comprehensive support), and bribery demands/discriminatory and unfair hiring
practices (44%) as key barriers to finding employment even after they have
graduated.
Indore leads in taking skill-based
initiatives, but faces challenge due to assessment methods
Admitting that the true challenge faced by
many educated professionals in India, chairperson of Indore Sahodaya complex of
CBSE schools Reena Khurana discussed various issues with the current education
system and suggested possible improvements.
“In our
country, education is seen differently than work or tasks and that’s how the
conflict begins, because our children learn about the world and techniques but
cannot implement them,” Reena said. She cited the education system of Finland,
where there are no subjects in schools.
“Work is a subject, for example, a class for
learning to cook, design, dance, science, etc, which is something we can learn
from,” Reena said. She also cited Japan, where children are inculcated into
work and tasks till they clear primary classes, before teaching them other
theoretical subjects.
“India already realises the importance of
skills and that is one of the reason that CBSE has introduced Artificial
Intelligence skill and started the concept of experiential learning from this
year on,” Reena said. She added that Indore CBSE schools have already taken up
the task more seriously and have taken several initiatives including ‘Green
Marks’ and prospects of working in development of Smart City.
“However, we do face a hindrance because of
the way we assess the students, it is still a challenge to assess students
based on skills and learning, where we need changes so that a better education
system can be established to produce skilled students,” Reena said.