Campus Calling
Last week there were two events related to education, one hosted by the British Council and the other by a department under the ministry for Information technology. The contrast between the two couldn't be more startling. Whilst the British Council's initiative to get more Indians to study in the UK was a high profile do, rather imaginatively held in a discotheque, the other was a low-key serious workshop.
But then the targets are different: India is battling a 55 per cent illiteracy rate. Apart from basic literacy, the current need of the hour, as articulated by P V Jayakrishnan, secretary IT, is that India would need eight lakh trained people in the IT sector by the year 2008 if "we have to make a serious bid to be an IT superpower." The formal education sector is expected to fulfil only part of this need. The IT ministry calculates that there will be a shortfall of about 2.32 lakh quality professionals in 2001-2002 itself. So where will the manpower come from? Obviously private sector participation in education holds the key as the workshop conducted by DOEACC, an autonomous body under the IT ministry, highlighted.
Recognising that only a handful of students qualify the tough entrance examinations for the MCA and MTech courses, the DOEACC had some time ago begun accrediting private institutes for imparting IT training. Courses were offeredat four levels _ O, A, B and C _ equivalent to the formal Foundation, Advanced Diploma, MCA and M.Tech respectively.
This was a routine review meet to find out how far goals had been met. Currently 700 institutes are recognised by the DOEACC and delegates from these institutes were here to share their perceptions and problems. Obviously there were many self pats _ 1.65 lakh students had appeared in examinations conducted by the department last year and as Arindam Bose, member secretary DOEACC proudly pointed out, each year the numbers are increasing.
However, there were others who raised uncomfortable questions. "Are all the people who pass out from these courses getting employment? Go and see what the labour market really needs," said Ashok Chandra, special secretary (education). Chandra also noted that the bureaucracy had to stop being suspicious about the private sector. A valid observation given that at the tea break, the bureaucrats when asked about the role of the NIITs and Aptechs in imparting IT training, scornfully said: "Oh, our quality of education is far superior."
For Britian, which is fast losing its status as the mecca of education (Oxford and Cambridge notwithstanding), Tony Blair's new educational initiatives are designed to attract more international students, especially Indians. Currently 6,000 Indian students study in the UK and the aim is to raise this number to 10,000 by the year 2005. To meet these targets scholarships have been doubled. Students will also be able to work while they study. Perhaps the biggest initiative is that students who do undergrad courses in the UK will be allowed to stay on for two more years to work.
In fact, British Council's whole approach appears to be to carve out a new identity for education@UK. That it is not as expensive as it is perceived to be ( most Indians prefer to go tothe US because of the cost factor). That it's a fun place to study with a happening lifestyle (music, arts, design and fashion).Fittingly then, the initiative was launched at a bar-cum-discotheque Float, with heavy endorsements from the likes of Cambridge alumni Mani Shankar Aiyar ("Don't study in the US _ we are a developing country, they're a developing civilisation"), Oxford educated Rajdeep Sardesai ("Imagine playing cricket at Lord's"), beauty queen turned classical acting student Diana Hayden (the mike failed so one couldn't hear her comments) and fashion designer Suneet Varma. Similar fun filled events are planned in Calcutta, Mumbai and Chennai as part of the promotional exercise
With Germany also opening its doors to Indians in the IT sector _ the world appears to be at our feet.