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From the

Editor
THE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT MAGAZINE

Volume X X V No.8

BOARD OF ADVISORS
N.R. Narayana Murthy, H.V. Gowthama, Shukla W hen I witness my UK-based nephews dismantle a 450 cc
Bose, Dr. Glenn Christo, Dr. R. Natarajan Harley-Davidson motor-cycle and put it back together in a
(Bangalore); Adi Godrej, Dr. Augustine Pinto, jiffy, and finish household plumbing and repair jobs using
Guilherme Vaz, Ketan Gala, Kirit Mehta, Balkishan
Sharma (Mumbai); Dr. Ramdas Pai (Manipal); sophisticated electric tools, I so regret my own education
Prof. Geeta Kingdon (Lucknow); Rajiv Desai, Dr. in an upscale boarding school in India where vocational
Parth Shah, Jeroninio Almeida (Delhi); Dr. Kannan
Gireesh (Chennai); Robindra Subba (Kurseong); education was conspicuously missing from the curriculum. Presumably, school
Sanjeev Bolia (Kolkata); Dr. Achyuta Samanta children of this day and age are more self-reliant and invested in technology
(Bhubaneswar); Yogi Kochhar (Dharamshala); — especially new digital gadgets. However it’s very doubtful if formal voca-
Shyama Thakore (London)
tional education in a useful trade — carpentry, electrical, plumbing, gardening
EDITOR etc — is provided with serious intent in India’s 1.5 million schools and 45,000
Dilip Thakore
colleges.
MANAGING EDITOR As a result, the average Indian adult is useless in the matter of repairing
Summiya Yasmeen
minor equipment (electricity, kitchen appliances, motor-car and white goods)
CHIEF SUB-EDITOR at home or in workplaces. The plain truth is that a mere 4 percent of India’s
Sundar Anand 560 million workforce is formally skilled. The overwhelming majority of our
Paromita Sengupta, Reshma Ravishanker, Gopi technicians and blue-collar workers are informally trained professionals with
Chand N, (Bangalore), Autar Nehru (Delhi)
9868256512, Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata) antiquated knowledge and tools handed down from one generation to the
9836491981, Shivani Chaturvedi (Chennai) next. That’s why across the country, bridges are falling, highways are potholed,
9500506102
railway accidents are frequent and the quality of manufactures is poor, making
CHIEF EXECUTIVE them uncompetitive in global markets.
Bhavin Shah +91 9867382867
The heavy cost of neglecting public education in general and skills or voca-
MARKETING tional education in particular in the post-independence decades has impacted
Vice President — Sales: Tejas Pattni 9022487997 the country with stunning force in the new age of automation, new digital
West: Aasana Jain 9820319127
South: Poonam Shah 9731966373 technologies and artificial intelligence. Suddenly there is the prospect of even
North: Hannan Ahmed 9810302768 well-educated individuals experiencing redundancy, obsolescence and career
E-mail: marketing@educationworld.in
stagnation, if not unemployment. Therefore, as discussed in our cover story in
GRAPHICS this issue, belated skilling, reskilling and upskilling fever is raging across the
Chandrashekar L. country, manifesting as much in executive suites as in college campuses.
Kotresh Y
Yet it’s a moot point whether skills education can be provided on a mass
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EDITORIAL Some eminent economists and pundits believe that overhauling India’s
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Tel: 080 22480880; Fax: 2227 5962; adequate resources to modernise the country’s outmoded education system. In
E-mail: editorial@educationworld.in our special report, we present a schema to raise almost Rs.8 lakh crore which
Printed and published by Dilip Thakore on behalf is 5x of the Centre’s provision for education in Budget 2024-25. For details,
of DT Media & Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. read our second lead feature in this new ideas-packed issue.
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6 EDUCATIONWORLD AUGUST 2024