Author:
Several recent events seem to have re-focused global attention on educational challenges of our times.
President Obama has been presenting science and technology innovations awards to students and scholars in America; he has been noticing that nearly half of the recipients are born outside the country. Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh has recently asked the research establishment of the country to move towards excellence in research and its applications to societal problems. The forthcoming UNESCO APEID conference is focusing on innovations and creativity in education. The Chinese government has been encouraging its graduates to spend some post-graduate time to study in Europe and North America so that they get global competitive knowledge.
A recent report of a two years long action research project for the Beacons of Public Engagement has concluded that âembedding public engagement in higher educationâ in UK has created much valuable solutions to the emerging challenges in their societies. The Faculty of Education at Glasgow University has been expanding its adult education programmes to local communities, specially those where life expectancy of men is lower than many poorest countries of the world.
A global dialogue of seven of the largest networks focused on enhancing community engagement of post-secondary educational institutions last week; it began to visualize a future where co-production of knowledge and co-teaching will become an integrated part of such institutions in decades ahead.
A common thread amongst all these is that education for life is critical for social transformationâfor individuals, communities and societies alike. The global emphasis on primary education caught the attention of policy-makers during the past two decades; a lot of investment went into making primary education universally accessible. Now, that attention and investment needs to focus on secondary and post-secondary education. The demographic dividend in Asian societies will accrue only where technical-vocational education and secondary/post-secondary educational provisions organically interact and the quality of such provisions is regularly enhanced. In countries like India, youth âbulgeâ may not get productively engaged in economic development if its educational preparation in vocational/technical skills and competencies is not urgently invested in. The biggest challenge is to promote a diversity of institutional arrangements that can be enabled to provide such educational opportunities. Polytechnics and universities in the public sector alone may not be able to meet this challenge.
Many countries like China and Brazil have embarked upon such extensive vocational/technical education through a variety of public and private (including non-profit) institutions; many municipalities have sponsored such educational provisions in these countries. Even in smaller countries like Ireland, policy instruments enable church-sponsored educational institutions to be legitimate credential-granting ones (Kimmage Development Studies Centre in Dublin is just one case in point). In South Asia, however, the speed at which holistic policy attention and sustained investment in all phases of educationâfrom primary to tertiaryâis still to be accelerated. The greatest need is to be able to impart a type of education that corresponds with the nature of social and economic life in countries of this region. In India, informal sectors of economyâin agriculture, rural development, services, social sector support, etcâaccount for nearly half the GDP and two-thirds of employment. Much of the recent economic growth is taking place in the informal sector, including small scale and social economy types of enterprises. Future employment of youth, which is migrating to urban/suburban areas in larger numbers, will occur only in these informal sectors of Indian economy (the formal sector, in fact, can not absorb even existing educated manpower).
The key question, therefore, is where are those educational provisions which focus on such informal sector employment? Are a diversity of educational providersânon-profits, public universities, polytechnics, etc---equipped to produce knowledge from such sectors of economy? Do they have the capacity to transform such knowledge into curriculum that prepares young people for employment in the informal sectors of Indian economy?
These, and many other, questions are increasingly important for us to answer; are there platforms and forum where such a conversation can take place so that âeducation for lifeâ is viewed holistically, and not in silos of primary, secondary and tertiary?
PRIA’s MobiliseHER team traveled to Bangalore during the week of June, 10 – 14, 2024. The aim of the visit was to gain relevant insights into the civil society ecosystem in Bangalore and meet different organisations to understand the city through a lens of gender and inclusive mobility.
Working at PRIA, often leads us to various cities across the country. Each trip is an opportunity to witness firsthand the challenges and triumphs of different communities.
Mr. Yedukrishnan V has recently joined PRIA after gaining valuable experience in the development sector. Drawing from his journey in the social sector and personal encounters in Kerala, he emphasises the importance of participatory governance and research in empowering marginalised communities.'
