Re: [MTC Global] [ Weekend Big Debate] Too much focus on Employability is a Threat

Dear Sir, Very well written. What you have said hits the nail on the head:
Higher education is for those interested in it; not all and sundry who have neither the
the interest nor the intellectual capacity for it. The real devil in this is the mistaken
notion that higher education means more lucrative employment.
Higher education is not a mass education. In fact even college education is not a mass
education. The real mass education is at the High school level or the Junior college
level.
Essentially, the corporate/industrial sector is responsible for employment, not merely in
generating employment but also creating valuable and useful employees. The clear reason
being that it is this sector which drives the economy. Today our corporate sectors want
fresh recruits to start producing output from day one. This is sheer myopia that is not
leading us anywhere.

Education is meant to create a more informed and enlightened population. It is the
responsibility of the student to acquire knowledge and skills that suit his native
interests. Educational mandarins and entrepreneurs are pushing higher education to make
the student employable. They have compromised academic rigor as a result and diluted
academic education.
It is time for the system to be corrected and falsehoods exposed concerning higher
education.
You have correctly stated: The Mass cannot be educated; the individual is educated.
Best Regards,
K.Paranjpe

On Thu, 25 Sep 2014 22:25:54 +0530 bala bhaskaran wrote
>Dear All,
The heightened focus on employability in higher education shows high level of
misconceptions and confusions.
Employability is essential and necessary. The fact that this is not inculcated is a
tragedy. But the solution is not to replace the objectives of higher education with those
of employability. This is the source of all misconceptions.
1.All professional courses (medicine, engineering, architecture, accounting, finance,law
etc) demand a high level of exposure to the practical field. This is achieved in the
academic programs through prolonged internships. In many places this aspect has been
forgotten and this is a source of the problem of poor of employability.
2. There are many other courses like BA, BSc, BCom etc where large no. of students are
enrolled. (Much more than in professional courses). Here there is no organised
internship; lately there is neither any serious emphasis on academic rigour. Where will
these guys find employment? They will eventually find employment somewhere but totally
different from the area of their education. We need to address the disconnect here. Can
we bring about a career focus before entering the degree programs?           a. In
Germany there is a system of young people going through apprenticeship before they join
college. After this apprenticeship               many of the students stay on in
employment because the compensation is good and they are not keen on any higher
studies.               Only those really interested in higher studies come to the
Universities.           b. We could look at this system implement it on experimental
basis in parts thereby reducing the pressure on the institutions of higher              
  learning by reducing the uninterested students in the class room.            c. Today
we have large number of uninterested students at the PG level also. This phenomenon we
see at the MBA class-room. Many               students are enrolling only to enhance
their job prospects. This has affected the class room processes and the final output.
3.In our context, in the name of universal/mass education we are enrolling all those opt
for the course and end up diluting the programs because many of the students enrolled are
in no way equipped to cope with the program';s rigour. We need to offer education to
every one who needs it and who deserve it. We should get away from mass education.Mass
does get educated ; only individuals get  educated.

We have created the Frankenstein over the years. Now we have to either live with it or
take courage to re-work the system.
Warm regards

Prof Bala Bhaskaran


On Thu, Sep 25, 2014 at 10:27 AM, Varun Arya wrote:


Bholanath, very well said indeed. I am fully aligned to what
you have said. Education is a noble cause for the individuals, families,
societies and the nations. Period.

=

At 06:58 25-09-2014, you wrote:

Narrow definitions of
employability that focus on short-term goals, individual benefits and
education as a private good, undermine the key role that higher education
plays in the democratic development of society. Misconceptions about
employability hinder the development of academic values in higher
education and are a threat because they encourage increased
commodification and privatisation within the system.


These latter two concepts are quite similar and both of them show the
instrumentalisation and changing perception of education – its
transformation into a purely economic factor and a resource for
prosperity.


Commodification refers to the increasingly commercialised way in which
higher education is being dealt with, while privatisation refers to a
tendency of higher education institutions to take on operational norms
associated with private enterprises.


The consequences of these threats are an elitist approach to higher
education, reflected in cuts to national education budgets, the
introduction of tuition fees, and more limited access to higher
education. Students are also turned into consumers or sometimes even a
product.


Students are not users of the system, nor are they consumers. They are
active partners who contribute to the reform and development of higher
education with their knowledge, experience and expertise.

Moreover, together with other partners they create the common ground for
discussions and encourage an objective approach to higher education as a
tool for social development.

 

Request views…………….

 

Educate, Empower, Elevate

Prof. Bholanath Dutta

Founder, Convener & President

MTC Global & Knowledge Cafe


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Sincerely yours

Prof  Bala
Bhaskaran+919687516777bala.bhaskaran@gmail.comhttp://prometheusbala.blogsport.in/





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