The need for ambitious self-teaching

In today's competitive age, millions of young Indians are trying to achieve their life-goals, either through the job market or by pursuing an entrepreneurial dream. More than 10 million new faces join the race each year! Indeed, that makes it a very tough race, and old methods that worked in an age gone by, can neither ensure victory nor any solid destination. And we keep coming across depressing news items in media regarding our degree-holders being unemployable. Many of our colleges and universities, assuming outdated and obsolete methods of imparting education and skills as relevant to the present day tsunamis, are delivering something that has little practical value. No one in particular is responsible, yet everyone actually is! We hear passionate cries promising system-repair, but little turns up on the ground. The youth understands that she/he needs to do something, but is usually clueless regarding the nitty-gritty.

A common refrain is - there are no opportunities, and the markets have little to offer educated people.

All this is having a telling effect on our social and political situation as well. Tensions keep mounting, and immediate solutions elude us. The choice before most of us is clear - either we give us and stop dreaming, or decide to go after it and find a solution. If you are young by age or attitude, then the latter option is always preferable! The good news is that in these difficult and changing times, there are many resources available that can easily impart skills which will not only develop your self-esteem and confidence, but even your market value. Let us try and understand how using simple and easy tools, we can learn something of value each day. These could mean the difference between success and failure. Seen as a whole, these can help our Indian society remain much more optimistic and positive.

First and foremost, we need to understand that the very internet that has revolutionsed most sectors, and has created huge problems for conventional methods, has simultaneously created a wonderful opportunity as well - it has brought the best teachers and learning resources right on your computer screen, available on a click. Many of them will do it free for you (on, say, Youtube), and the rest will do it at a price (on personal teaching sites). Try getting the gist of this argument. If you really want to crack it, then you have an option of getting help from the most skilled professionals in the world on a one-to-one basis, and this can help you deliver more in your job and race forward. Not only this, you can become an internet entrepreneur yourself, without any major investment. Excited? Let's see some milestones you're likely to face in this exciting journey.

First milestone - Make three things a part of your daily life. (a) Read the blogs and articles by experts of your chosen field (on the internet), (b) Keep digging deep into the multiple aspects of emerging technologies (on relevant technology websites and forums), and (c) Keep saving relevant and useful content in a notebook (or a webtool like Evernote). Just keep at this for six months at least, and realise how the techniques of learning and skilling have truly transformed. As an example - many engineering related courses are available for free. Immense resources are available related to technologies being used on the internet to create various tools. Multiple marketplaces abount (like Envato), where skilled graphic and web designers can sell their wares, without even stepping out of their homes. And if you have the teacher-talent in you, then why not start your own course academy to teach others (using platforms like Ruzuku, Kajabi, Udemy etc.), and earn in dollars!

Second milestone - When you will start spending your time (and datapack) on these skill-focussed areas rather than mostly useless chatting and video-watching, then you'll surely face three questions. Whom to follow daily (Google to the rescue, followed by Alexa ranking like tools), which paid programmes are really useful (check out various review and comparison sites), and how to really turn your entrepreneurial dreams into reality (check out teaching, blogging and hosting sites). You'll surely face problems with English. So you'll begin searching the right language teachers. The plethora of options will make your mind spin! I strongly feel that the millions of educated ladies who often utilise their talents only in cooking food for their families - they can (with some effort) become a micro-entrepreneur leveraging the internet and empower themselves and their families. If the family elders happen to be hyper-conservative, they can be told that this would not necessarily entail action outside the home.

Third milestone - To prepare oneself, one's organisation, and the nation too, for the coming decades. It surely is not an exaggeration to say that the internet-enabled storm of easily available yet powerful technologies has totally transformed most sectors. We witness the changes in many areas like taxi services, shopping platforms, medical diagnosis and freelancing. Sadly, the Indian brands are not at the forefront of this unique race (surprising, given the dominance Indians display in services and in running some of these very global leader brands!). I have often spoken of this issue, calling it 'Digital Sovereignty' or 'Digital Independence'. Why has this happened? A simple answer is - we have spent our energies in cramming stuff, and acing exams. We lost the art of learning. The three key skills duly adapted to a new world - ability to read & comprehend fast, expressing ourselves through the written word beautifully, and basic arithmetic - were not developed. Net result? The easy methods by which one can try to cater to a global market despite being a micro-entrepreneur are not in our radar.

The choice is ours - keep cursing the system, and wait for a messiah who will transform the entire scenario. Or begin the journey of our individual success today, and start creating innovative products and services using modern technologies. We may not succeed always, but when we do, it may be spectacular.

My Hindi editorial article on this theme was published recently. Can check here!

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Youth, Fundamentalism and Violence

Wherever you scan the scene, there's one incident plainly visible - an increasingly large number of youth attracted towards fundamentalism. In a connected world, this becomes a problem as minor incidents become visible to all, and can be twisted out of context. Across Asia, Europe and America, policy-makers are worried as to how to reverse this trend, and turn it to a positive movement.

To understand this problem, we need to get a handle on its various dimensions.

Let us first take a look on the most crucial life goals for a young person. I can understand five - a good job, nice salary, reputation in society, happiness of family and hope of stability and success over the next 10 years. If a young person considers himself able to achieve these, or some of these, then his/her entire personality and interest turns positive, otherwise it's not too tough to misguide him. Whenever political instability is the norm, youth try to find their own ground. When it happens in a democratic setup like India's, we get leaders for the future with a strong sentiment to tackle the nation's problems.

But the real problem arises when youth find a completely disintegrating system. A good example is the age of the Arab Spring (2010 to 2015) when the young people of the Arab world aggressively challenged the old, family-driven regimes. In some nations, they could achieve their goals, like Tunisia, but in others it created a full-blown crisis. Fundamentalists were able to whip up passions enough to turn young people into terrorists. By referring to mistakes made by colonial powers like Britain, France and Russia a hundred years ago - for example the Sykes-Picot agreement which dismembered the Ottoman empire to create new States - the Islamic State (I.S.) was able to create its own ground. By promising religious solutions to some real-world problems, young men are being used to carry out atrocities and crimes that are unimaginable.

Emulating this successful model was almost like a formula for fundamentalist preachers in other nations too. Since the formal education systems are generally unable to generate real capabilities that can be fruitfully used in a changing job-market, frustration is rife at various levels. The young, who are working hard to get a good material life were bombarded by media (through advertisements and programmes) with life-ideals that further accentuated frustration. These young people (15 to 25 years) saw corruption all around, leaders building personal palaces, the handicapped police, and ideals for sale in the examination systems. In the middle of all this, when elders at home teach virtues of treading the ideal path, the youth is unable to digest it.

What is wrong with the Indian education system?

I have been teaching students some of the toughest courses since 1993. My analysis of the mainstream education’s failure to deliver is summarised in 5 points below.

1. Wrong ownership - Colleges and schools are largely owned by people who have no stake in actual process of education inside the classroom. Typical owners - large landlords, business tycoons, real-estate moguls, politicians, civil servants (by proxy), liquor manufacturers, etc. Principals are powerless, teachers fixated by routines and Boards unwilling to radically alter their approach. So all pillars are ossified. Who’ll bring the change? Definitely not the ones not holding the chalk.
2. Wrong models - Today, and here on, learning has to be truly border-less. While one needs a certain syllabus and boundaries to make it concrete, the free enquiry model of learning is nowhere present. Teachers themselves don’t know how to leverage the internet and technology to teach. Installing a so-called “smart” class is considered the ultimate leap into 22nd century. What a grotesque application of money to solve a deeply intellectual problem. Results are obvious. 
3. Wrong grading process - Over the years, grades and marks have turned into a joke. Everyone with a decent effort scores so high, lacs emerge with perfect ten pointers. What’s the point? Boards compete with each other in ways not entirely productive to overall raising of standards. While this is all debatable, the grade inflation is killing a genuine separation of chaff from the grain. And in parallel, everyone is preparing for some competitive exam using entirely different yardsticks. This schizophrenia is perhaps unique to us! As a school-owner jokingly told me - “We know all parents know ki asli padhai to ghar par tuition laga kar hi karni padegi!” (real education will be only through personal tuitions at home)

   

   Re-imagining the building blocks

4. Sham in the name of government schools - The most well-funded part of the education system - government schools - are largely broken. Until by law we make it mandatory for government servants’ kids to be educated only there, nothing will change. Just do that, and see the miracle in 5 years.
5. Distorted social ideals - Society needs degrees for marriage, for jobs, for parties, for marriage receptions, for matrimonial advts, for prestige and for dowry. Skills are no one’s concern. And most companies only want genuine skills. No doubt, carpenters are earning thrice what normal engineering graduates are. And doctorates? You have to meet some of these newly minted “doctors” and have a 10 min rigorous discussion with them to realise why India has turned into a consumer nation, not a creator nation.

Indian mainstream education needs not just a rethink, it needs total redesign. Society and its drivers have changed dramatically in the past 10 years. More drastic changes are afoot. In that light, are we really prepared? With each year’s delay, we are consciously turning our demographic dividend into … you know what.

This article from Times of India dated 11-July 2016 by R Jagannathan summarise the jobs scene neatly. Yes, our education system is not responsible for this change that has happened, but it is responsible for responding appropriately. Students in schools and colleges have to be prepared for this world, not the one that existed 20 years ago. (you can zoom in to read)

Thanks for reading, and have a good day!

A comprehensive, topic-wise and useful collection of my various posts and answers can be found here. Enjoy.
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What has Arvind Kejriwal achieved as a politician?

In my view, he has achieved the following -

• Given hope - that you actually can rise in politics even if you are not the son or daughter of a big political hotshot
• Provided a mirror - to the BJP & Congress that India is not at all a homogenously winnable equation, and that the strangest of challenges can erupt as long as genuine poverty persists
• Provided a voice - to the poorest of the poor urban classes, in a political system that has no respect for them except during election seasons
• Given birth to a new political class - Unknown individuals till yesterday could rise and shine as people's representatives, in a system where it is otherwise literally impossible to do so
• Leashed the mighty - Love him or hate him, he is the embodiment of the key democratic principle that "People power actually is supreme" and no Party can assume its continued reign as a God-given right

Not a pleasant sight for the traditional political classes

In a horribly corrupt and criminalised system, where the sole motive of many who enter is rent-seeking of the most merciless variety, these surely count as massive achievements. While growing up in the 1970s and 80s, I remember distinctly how nearly everyone lamented the lack of educated people in Indian politics. Well, now we have one, with a bang. Let us hope he can deliver, in a spirit of cooperative federalism.

In a vast, diverse, complex and densely populated federal nation like India, even a powerful new idea will take time to show results. Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party deserve their fair share of time.