THESE DEGREES ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH!

I was in Germany, attending a Plastic Surgery meeting, where I met an old friend of mine and we talked amongst other things, about our families. Her daughter had recently married and when I asked what the groom did for living, she informed me that he was a motor mechanic and was doing very well in life! “We repair the car owners and he repairs the cars” was what she said proudly. Contrast this with what your response would have been – he is MD in Radiodiagnosis and working in a 5 star hospital or an MBA and working with a multinational firm, or a PG from a reputed school of Economics and in working the Planning Commission. My friend did not even bother to mention her son in law’s academic qualifications, because according her, and according to most of the developed world, the university degrees are just a vehicle to achieve greater working skills in life. But, are our Universities and colleges providing these skills when they are handing over the gold embossed and exquisitely calligraphic graduate degrees? Are these degree holders market ready? Are they employable? If not, then what good is being served by these degrees and this education? And above all, is there any relation what so ever between these degrees and education?

In India, people are obsessed with attaining a graduation degree and generally look down upon vocational education. This has resulted in a situation where on the one hand there are tens of thousands of unemployed graduates and on the other hand there is a huge shortage of skilled workers such as teachers, interpreters, plumbers, carpenters, electricians etc. To rectify this situation vocational training programmes in India need to be promoted in a big way. The Government should stress on reforms in school education system to make it students centric, reduce stress and introduce vocational education at senior secondary stage with provision for transfer to the general university system. We should develop skilled manpower through diversified courses to meet the requirements of mainly the unorganized sector and to instill self-employment skills in people through a large number of self employment oriented courses.

Vocational education is imparted in our country through Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and polytechnics. One of the weaknesses of Indian education system is that it does not gives due importance to vocational education and those who pass out with Diplomas from these institutes are considered lower in the pecking order than those from the innumerable Engineering colleges, medical colleges and business schools. If we do not address this perception problem and if we do not start giving respect to skill and employability there will exist a mismatch between the skilled manpower required and skilled manpower available despite our ever growing unemployment problem. Every year we churn out millions of graduates who do not have the specific skill sets required by the market. If this trend continues it would hurt our economic growth in the long run. To change this situation first we need to change our mindset.

Last year the anaemic largest opposition party was unduly perturbed because the new Human Resource Minister did not possess that coveted graduate degree. Did the lack of that priceless piece of paper prevent her from excelling in her own sphere of life – as an actor and as a political activist? History is riddled with geniuses who never bothered about this system of education.

The list of successful people, from all spheres of life, who never had any college degree, is endless. Julie Andrews, Jennifer Anniston, Dhirubhai Ambani, Woody Allen, Andre Agassi, Gautam Adani, Bryan Adams, Warren Beatty, Boris Becker, Steffi Graf, Swami Bhaktipada, Charles Bronson, Warren Buffet, Gisele Bundchen, Heidi Klum, Christopher Columbus, Sean Connery, Brunello  Cucinelli (fashion designer), Cindy Crawford, Michael Dell (Dell Computers), Robert De Niro, Walt Disney, Bob Dylan, Albert Einstein, Queen Elizabeth II, William Faulkner, Henry Ford, Robert Frost, Bill Gates, John Glenn (Astronaut and Senator), Whoppi Goldberg,  Harper Lee (Pulitzer Prize for ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’),Adolph Hitler, John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, Dustin Hoffman, Steve Jobbs and Rabindra Nath Tagore never graduated from an University but surely they possessed unparalleled skills, and are a testament to the fact skills should be respected. These are / were people with astounding personalities, to whom the lack of a degree from an University never mattered, but what about those thousands and thousands of skilled people in our work force, who are farming in the fields, teaching in tuition classes, working in textile industry, helping the dairy industry, repairing mobile phones, colour televisions, computers, scooters and cars? Why is the society not prepared to give them the respect which they deserve? We all know how invaluable a good plumber or a good electrician or a good carpenter is. Have we ever asked them to produce their University degree before offering them the job? A degree would have perhaps made them a useless consultant, not prepared to dirty their hands!

So, at the end of the day, we should abort the distorted notions about BBA, MBA, BE, MBBS start respecting skills and stop running after these self hyper branded  and society glamorized degrees which end up in producing a sterile force of unemployable graduates. Universities are sucking money like vampires and producing these degree holders whom the market doesn’t require. Our Universities should provide many opportunities to develop new skills and further enhance our existing ones. In addition to the skills related to our subject, our course can develop skills such as communication, teamwork, time management, negotiation and problem solving through group work, presentations, written reports and research. The government has started a new stream of education called B.Voc which is Bachelor of Vocational Training and there are 80 vocations being taught all over India. I hope this is the first step towards producing employable graduates.

Colleges can impart skills in both curricular and extra-curricular activities. Skills can also be developed through activities such as obtaining work experience, volunteering, being part of a sports team, taking on a leadership role in a student society, or organizing fundraising for national calamities. Entrepreneurship needs to be encouraged at the college level and respect for the skilled, who are adding to the productivity of the Nation, rather than those degree holders who are unemployed, and worse still – unemployable, is the need of the hour. While the former are assets to the Nation, the latter are simply parasites – hungry for a job for which they are not prepared. Our education system cannot continue to produce parasites!