Equipping for the future

 Much has been said about education and the prevalent system which has not been up to the task of producing youths with It is true that education is not only about being qualified for jobs but also being an active participant for transformation of society and also sets the educated mind free. There is need to develop a curriculum of life skills and soft skill (emotional intelligence) for the whole school stage, involving both the left and right brain competences. Each year a few thousand graduate from colleges and join the growing ranks of the unemployed. The situation has indeed crossed the point of being merely a matter of serious concern. More jobs are needed but there isn’t any. To add to the problem, the state’s economy is on unsure ground and no industries and restricted opportunities for investments in private enterprises owing to the feeling of insecurity. Institutions have always held academic excellence and high quality as the highest goals. In other states that have achieved notable successes in higher education, much stress in put on the overall preparedness of a student during and after leaving the college. This is identified by a term called value added education which is about assessing the development of the student and what has been attained during college and various capabilities that have been imbued. The assessment of value added education also puts a lot of onus on the skills, methods and goals of teachers in adding capabilities on the students. As the world becomes more and more technology based and fast paced, the competition for jobs will grow even fiercer. Soon there will be only the most menial jobs for those who will not go on to college, training in computer programming will be almost mandatory. With economic growth and globalization, there are debates brewing on how to improve the quality of higher education. Education programs focus on bettering student achievements, career orientation, improving education quality, professional development and innovation. The state government spends a very large amount of money on education aside from funds through various Centrally Sponsored Schemes which are additions to the normal budget. Besides unavailability of teachers for science and mathematics, most buildings of the government schools in the far flung areas are in dilapidated state. Though government educational institutions expanded tremendously, both in terms of infrastructure as well as in the number of teaching faculty; they seem to be faced with many problems. Most of these are actually due to inherent administrative problems such as- decisions on appointment and deployment that have seem to be done through political and bureaucratic interferences. However, the big gap probably reveals an endemic problem within the government’s education system which needs to be analysed and concrete actions taken to stem the rot. In order to fulfil the need for quality education, the centre has unveiled the National Education Policy 2020 to provide quality impartation. Whatever be the content of the NEP 2020, in the end it all boils down to the implementation. It is an accepted fact that genuine improvements in pedagogy will only come when teaching is no longer seen simply as a matter of technique or performance or planning or even design, but rather as a matter of equity and the well-rounded development of the products that eventually come out of colleges and universities.