A major source of employment in India

In India too, the 'new-age' education system is preparing itself for the learning needs and challenges of enterprise 4.0. The penetration of digital education into the hinterland/rural market is evolving fast and the proliferation of digital tools and applications has further transformed the learning communication practices.

It has a re-defined teacher-learner interface, training pedagogies, instructional design, and educational curriculum. Educational institutions play a significant role in the development of a child, society, nation, and the world at large. It has always been found that the developed and strong developing are backed up and supported by robust education systems.

The global educational landscape is undergoing a dramatic transformation wherein many educational institutions and training centers have transitioned towards the online mode of teaching, learning, and training to mitigate the impact of the Corona Virus on education.

At a very basic estimate, in India, about 64.3 per cent of the colleges are private unaided. A majority of the colleges in India are privately managed with or without receiving financial/non-financial aid from the government. Unaided private colleges in the country provide direct employment to millions of people which comprise teaching, non-teaching, and support staff. This translates into livelihood to 12-15 crores citizens of the country, making education one of the top 5 employment providers in the country.

The roadmap of independent education institutions (rather all the educational institutions) is up for a drastic change post-pandemic. The new-age format calls for measures that encourage the transition from rigid campus and attendance-based systems and will move on to:

Hybrid model- Online education will eventually become an integral component of school education. Blend of face-to-face and on-line forms of teaching will emerge with significant benefits where the online component can be delivered through both synchronous and asynchronous modes and will enable students to learn at different times in different locations.

AI will personalise learning – Artificial Intelligence will bring many opportunities and challenges to the sector.

The traditional 'one-size-fits-all' approach to education will be ineffective and lead to higher dropout rates. But if utilized properly, big data analytics and artificial intelligence will create personalised learning experiences that will help in resolving some of these challenges and will majorly contribute to decreasing the rate of dropout rates.

Examination and grading – M0dern technology will offload teachers from the burden of paper evaluation, assessment, markings, etc. With these tasks taken care of by AI, Teachers will be able to pay more attention to relevant tasks like new teaching pedagogies, course improvement, aptitude development, curriculum innovation, etc.

The pandemic is a reminder for always being prepared for an unpredictable future in terms of knowledge, skills, problem-solving, creative thinking, technology and collaboration. The rapid spread of Covid-19 has undoubtedly demonstrated the importance of technology; but at the same time, it has shown the value of being resilient to face various threats and being agile enough to quickly adapt to changes.

Colleges on their own have been mindful of the economic challenges that certain parental households are undergoing due to the lockdown and have been proactive to provide relief to the extent feasible and sustainable. At the same time Colleges have been working overtime to ensure that they transcend to online learning and keep intact their academic resources and staff community.

In the midst of all these, several circulars have been issued in quick succession raising confusion and false hope among the Parent's community and have put the continuance of school operations at severe threat. Besides student fees, unaided private colleges do not have any other source of revenue.

To conclude, it would be apt to say that the exponentially increasing rate of growth of population is likely to create a large number of job opportunities in the country and hence will become a major source of employment in India.

(The author is Chancellor of Sanskriti University)