New govt policy to help people resume education after break
NEW DELHI: India will soon have a credit transfer method, similar to the US college and university system, which will enable students to come back and rejoin the education system if they leave mid-way for employment.
A credit equivalent framework from class 9 onwards to the postgraduate level will be launched on November 11, the National Education Day, human resource development (HRD) minister Smriti Irani said on Wednesday.
“We do not have a credit transfer system within our country that enables the migration of labour across the country,” she said at the India Economic Summit. The system will be extended up to the PhD level in January, Irani said.
She also announced initiatives planned for next year, including the “Shala Darpan” project — an app to enable parents receive updates on their children’s school attendance, assignments and achievements via cellphones.
The government is also working towards setting up placement cells and career counselling centres in which the industry and the academia will collaborate to aid students, Irani said.
The Centre, which plans to roll out a new education policy next year, will also launch a “National Aavishkar Yojana” to encourage research, Irani said. “We are extremely concerned about the quality of teachers in the scientific and technical community.”
The key to employability is to ensure respect for teachers and rework the curriculum to keep in pace with requirements of the job market, said Uday Kotak, executive vice-chairman and MD of Kotak Mahindra Bank.
Shobhana Bhartia, chairperson and editorial director of HT Media, said there is a talent conundrum in India.
“Though we talk about the huge demographic dividend that India enjoys, there are people without jobs and jobs without people,” Bhartia said.
The solution is to ensure that educational courses are designed to ensure employability, so that the problem of skilling is addressed, she said, adding digital education will be a key factor moving forward.