Are Educated Indian Students Employable? No, Says the Survey
Pearson Voice of Teacher Survey 2015
As Indian schools fail miserably in providing the right education to students, a new ‘Pearson Voice of Teacher Survey 2015’ reveals that Indian students may be educated but they are not employment-ready.
The survey further says that the Indian education assessment framework is lacking specific action points to enable comprehensive development of students. Incompetence of school teachers is believed to be a major irritant in the dwindling education system of India.
As parents lack awareness of the evolving job market, they keep sending their children to schools which are doing more harm to students’ careers as teachers use defective teaching techniques.
Given the situation, it is recommended that parents should stop sending their children to traditional Indian schools in order to save their money and their children’s time. A complete overhaul of the Indian education system is required. But who will do that?
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Main Findings of the Pearson Survey:
- Teachers (57%) believe that students are not adequately prepared for employment
- Collective call by teachers (75%) for industry collaborated curriculum restructuring
- Urge for industrial training of teachers (44%) to impact employability of Indian students
- Majority (66%) support technology adoption across levels; school teachers, specifically, consider installation of smart boards (77%) and bundled multimedia content (51%) key initiatives
- High costs (38%) and lack of infrastructure and maintenance (23%) seen as foremost challenges for technology adoption at educational institutions
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On the occasion of Teachers’ Day, the teaching community has collectively voiced their opinion on the employability quotient of the Indian students and gave critical recommendations for the formulation of New Education Policy to enable Education for Employment, through the Pearson Voice of Teacher Survey 2015. This is the 3rd edition of the annual survey. Its findings were released Friday.
The survey carries significant insights and possible solutions from teachers that can aid the Government’s deliberations on themes such as employability, industry collaborations and integration of ICT (information and communication technology or computer education) in the framework for the New Education Policy.
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With teachers considering 57% of the Indian students to be educated but not adequately prepared for employment, the survey respondents strongly called for increased industry academia collaboration, particularly for course restructuring (75%), to help boost employability.
Interestingly, the teaching community (44%) expressed the need for industry training of teachers in addition to merit-based industry internships (48%) for students.
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Teachers’ perspective at State level:
“Percentage of students that lack the skills adequate for employment”
- Highest: Haryana – 67%
- Lowest: Uttar Pradesh – 49%
“Current Assessment framework provides specific action items to teachers and parents”
- Highest agreement from Karnataka (61%)
- Lowest agreement from NCT of Delhi (32%)
“High cost is a challenge in technology adoption”
- Highest agreement from Gujarat (46%)
- Lowest agreement from NCT of Delhi (25%)
“Our education system is providing holistic education to students”
- Teachers in Karnataka (69%) agree the most
- Teachers in NCT of Delhi (45%) agree the least
In the survey, 52% of the respondents believe that India’s Education Assessment Framework lacks specific action points for teachers and parents to enable holistic education. Dissatisfaction with the assessment system in India is much higher at Higher Education level (60%) than School level (43%).
“Assessments play an important role in giving teachers and parents the right benchmarks to follow for personalized learning and better learning outcomes of students. In the New Education Policy, teachers expect a more robust assessment framework,” said Deepak Mehrotra, managing director, Pearson India.
For integration of ICT in the education system, teachers across India recommend provision of computer and internet connectivity across institutions (66%) and installation of smart boards (62%) as key requirements. However, teachers consider high cost of technology installation (38%) and lack of infrastructure and maintenance (23%) as the biggest challenges for technology adoption at educational institutions.
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“It is great to see widespread acceptance for technology adoption as well digital education tools across the learning curve. Going by the survey findings, there may be a case for the government to consider introducing technology subsidization schemes for educational institutes,” suggests Mehrotra.
However the silver lining of the findings showed in teachers’ belief (60%) that India’s education system is providing comprehensive and holistic education (subject knowledge along with social, creative, physical, and ethical) to learners.
However, teachers at higher-education level are less convinced with the existing system’s ability to provide holistic education (51%) vis-à-vis counterparts at school level (72%).
Pearson Voice of Teacher Survey 2015
To facilitate transition from ‘subject-based learning’ to ‘holistic learning’, teachers across India ranked appropriate continuous assessments of students’ performance (47%), better integration of technology and digital content into teaching methodology (44%) and linkage between concepts across subjects / discipline (43%) as the most effective ways.
Released on the occasion of Teachers’ Day, Pearson Voice of Teacher Survey is an annual initiative of Pearson, the world’s leading learning company. The survey focuses on key challenges facing the Education sector in India and shares teachers’ perspective on the changing dynamics of the ecosystem.
The survey, fielded in July 2015 – August 2015 represents the views of 5,387 teachers from schools and higher education institutes across 527 cities and towns in India. One of the leading strategic market intelligence consultancies in Asia Pacific region – Spire Research and Consulting – partnered with Pearson for the survey.
Pearson is the world’s leading learning company, with 40,000 employees in more than 80 countries. Its work spans through three core verticals – a) K-12 or schooling, b) Higher education and test preparation and c) Vocational (and professional) education.
Established in India since 1998, Pearson has introduced its range of products and services in educational institutes as well as directly to the learners.
