Education Ecosystem for the 4th Industrial Revolution
iasparliament
March 22, 2019
What is the issue?
The government is putting in place an education ecosystem to boost advanced learning in new-age technologies.
With the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR) in the making, it is essential that India’s higher education sector capitalise on this.
What is the 4th IR about?
The Third Industrial Revolution was of personal computers and internet.
The next wave of global progress and growth is being driven by the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
This involves the emerging technologies that merge together to change the dynamics of how industries operate.
These include artificial intelligence, machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), 3D printing, biotechnology and 5G.
What is the challenge before India?
India has the world’s largest population of young people.
In any case, India needs more jobs for its 50-crore youth that will be in the labour market by 2030.
To capitalise on the Fourth Industrial Revolution, India has to align the higher education sector with the demands of the new age.
But India already faces structural and regulatory challenges in the higher education sector.
So the path to create a market for higher education in emerging technologies has multiple limitations ahead.
Some of the biggest obstacles include the inadequacy of curriculum and trained faculty since the technology itself is evolving rapidly.
So, the only way for students to gain knowledge in emerging technologies is to learn directly from an industry practitioner or join online resources.
The groundwork to gravitate the youth towards a career in such technologies has already been laid by the government.
What are the government initiatives in this regard?
There are three pillars that have been created for the needed structural change.
Autonomy - The Graded Autonomy status was granted by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
This has given the freedom to higher education institutions to launch new courses, off-campus centres, skill development courses, and foster other academic collaborations with industry.
So new-age courses in emerging technologies can be easily launched by universities without being delayed by the regulator’s approval.
Ranking - India's academic institutes largely lack a performance-based public ranking system.
The gap is set to be filled after the Human Resource Development Ministry launched the Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation and Achievements (ARIIA).
Under this, by April 2019, over 800 higher education institutes will be ranked on parameters related to innovation and entrepreneurship development.
E.g. universities facilitating students to launch market-ready products, launch start-ups etc., through new courses, will be highly rewarded under the rankings
Technical education - The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has reduced the minimum credits needed for a degree from 180 to 160.
This effectively reduces a full semester of academic load for students and faculty.
The AICTE also formulated the National Student Start-up Policy.
This enables bright students to take up courses in emerging technologies.
They can learn practical engineering skills by working on prototypes and gain a “minor degree”.
If the student continues to build the prototype into a start-up, the knowledge and experience acquired by the entrepreneur will be recognised as an MBA in Entrepreneurship Programme.
This is possible under the new AICTE guidelines.
What do these initiatives imply?
The interlinking of these there pillars will let the institutes adopt new technology courses (elective and minor) with industry partnerships.
The potential students will gravitate towards these institutions, which have higher flexibility and a modern outlook to the industry.
These students will acquire better skills and drive up new job openings in emerging technologies.
They could build up a new generation of products and start-ups from India.
What lies before India?
The advent of the fourth industrial revolution is already being seen as transforming skill-based sectors in developed countries.
It is facilitating increased investments in Research and Development (R&D) measures in countries like US, China and Japan.
In such a scenario, India needs to catch up with the anticipated changes in its own labour market.
The need of the hour is a plan of action to create a model for higher education that addresses these shifts.
