While inaugurating the FICCI ARISE Conference on School Education in New Delhi, Vice President Mr. M. Venkaiah Naidu advocated for including gender studies in the educational institutions so that children learn to respect and become sensitive towards people of all genders from an early age.
He called for value based education and said that education is not just for employment but also for empowerment and enlightenment of individuals and the society. He stressed upon inculcating values such as patience, honesty, respect, tolerance and empathy in the students.
Mr. Naidu appreciated the increase in the capacity of India's higher education sector in the last two decades, but also expressed concerns over the reports pointing out a decline in employability of our graduates.
In this regard, he called for reforming our teaching and training systems to improve learning outcomes.
"Globally, there is a dramatic change in the way teachers are teaching and learners are assimilating knowledge", he said and highlighted the need to move away from rote learning and to focus on analytical and critical thinking abilities among students.
"The new wave of technologies has transformed our industry and society in an unprecedented manner", the Vice President said and stressed that "the skills needed for future workforce will be totally different".
He said that schools and universities need to prepare and educate young Indians for these future challenges posed by technologies.
"We will have to train our youngsters to be experts in Automation, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things and Big Data so that they may spearhead the 4th Industrial Revolution in our country', he said.
Mr. Naidu expressed concern that there is a great void in the market because students gain knowledge in academic institutions and not the skills required for jobs. As a result, Indian corporate and educational space is witnessing huge investment of time and money in skill training, talent acquisition and retention to address the dearth of skilled workforce.
The Vice President also called the entrepreneurship education and training as very important so that we may empower young people to be the job creators of the future and not just job seekers.
He said that children who are at greater risk of dropping out of schools such as- girl children, orphans, child-laborers, street children and victims of riots and natural disasters need special attention.
"It should be our top priority to bring such 'out-of-school' children back to schools", he said.
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