Will India Really Initiate For Sake Of Students?

Though Students in India are said to be educated in their subjects, it is always a back fall when it comes to Employability. Yes, A round table conference which was held at IIM A (Indian Institute of Management- Ahmedabad) being a part of Confluence 2012 discussed few issues regarding to employability of today's youths in India.

They spoke on the theme of exploring models for Collaboration among industry, government and academia. The founder of Infibeam, Vishal Mehta said "Only 50% to 60% os students could clear a test designed by the company when they went for campus placements. This is a very low figure. I have found that students in Gujarat have sound technical knowledge, but what lacks is the surrounding skills- team work, thinking forward etc."

He also said that educational institutes alone cannot be blamed for the situation. The earn-while-you-learn programme that is quite common in the UK, US and other countries can be of help in making our students learn these surrounding skills".

The commissioner of Higher Education Jayanti Ravi listed the number of steps taken by the government top promote innovation in education. She also ruled the fact that in India, the best of brains don't opt for the teaching job.

"If we take into consideration the purchasing power parity (PPP) model, you will be surprised to know that salaries in the field of higher education are the highest in India among the BRIC countries. Even across the world, we stand eighth when it comes to pay", she added.

However, there was a general consensus among the speakers that usually the poor employability of students was blamed on educational institutes, when in fact business too need to come up with models that would make youth more employable.

The Gujarat Technical University's Vice Chancellor Akshi Agarwal who has also been present at the round table conference said that commercialization of education had shifted the focus from quality to profit making. "The only saving grace perhaps is that we don't lag behind Pakisthan abd Bangladesh", he added.

Supporting his statement with statistics, Mr.Agarwal showed how the quality of higher education in India had been deteriorating at a fast pace with even countries like Malaysia, Thailand and Saudi Arabia overtaking us in the field.

So, what do you think? Will India Really Initiate For Sake Of Students? Share your opinion with us.