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According to the poll, many young people in South Asia feel their education systems are outdated and do not prepare them for employment.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.