Textbook definition of coaching is to get support in achieving a targeted personal or professional goal. More nuanced usage of this term is the process of giving a student extra teaching in a particular subject. Cultural moorings and history and current availability of types and competition for jobs in India have made coaching for few available jobs a booming industry in itself. A coaching culture of this kind in India is evidently growing every year, which seems to have been working inversely proportional to the vacancy figures being made available due to perverse incentives to tutors.

The problems of the students compound manifold as the promises and priorities of the majority of the coaching classes are misplaced since they hardly factor in the situations students face or are from. Their sole objective is to reap rich benefits by promising skies to the credulous parents and students. The fact also remains that there could be more than 100 times aspirants than the vacancies and all harbour the same dream of cracking a particular exam with all possible resources to their disposal, which without doubt create psychological, social and economic upheavals, resulting in violence and other ugly scenes in some parts of the country.

There is little denying the fact that a right kind of coaching proves helpful for especially the students coming from rural and semi-urban areas who are normally not aware or well-aware of the latest trends and practices of how to prepare for various exams. For example, a coaching is supposed to be giving them the right guidance, personalization of studies, new learning styles, tips for getting a competitive advantages, the proper utilization of time and routine, selection of subjects, getting to cover up specific chapters/subjects/topics among others. However the cons always overwhelm the pros. The cons also constitute additional expenditure on education by the poor middle class on coaching class which is rising rapidly, extra homework burden on students which causes physical and psychological stress to them and their families, focus on rote learning and curriculum being different from school academic structure among others.

The trend of having a parallel practice and guidance now seems to start right after a child completes his or her Kindergarten. The idea of having a coaching has become a trend today with parents too being unavailable for their part of impartations to children, and instead substituting it with coaching institutes. This has encouraged coaching institutes over last two decades to upgrade themselves with multiplied service packages, big promises with no guarantee, study material entrapment and tricky terms and conditions. This pressurises both types of students – those who take coachings, feel the pressure of clearing exams and the pressure increases manifold with more and more attempts and parents staring at them; and those who do not pursue coachings struggle with pressure of incompetence and fear of failure.

The situation can better be understood by the numbers of employees in central and state government services. The Union Budget for 2022-23 estimated the strength of central government employees at 34.65 lakh. If we add around 14 lakh armed forces, the number reaches to around 47 lakh employees. According to the report of the 7th Pay Commission, the total sanctioned strength of the central government was around 38.9 lakh in 2014. The central government employs around 8.5% of organised workforce with armed forces being the biggest employer. The military constitutes around 30% of the central workforce, followed by railways with around 28% share in central employees. Even among central government jobs the majority of government employees belong to group C with a share of 88.7%, followed by group B with 8.5% share and group A with just 2.8% of the share. While, state governments employ around one crore people. The average recruitment in the central government between 2006 and 2014, was a little over one lakh a year. But the number of youth preparing for government jobs both central and states, stands at several millions. The largest employer armed forces recruit around 60 thousands a year and each year, those knocking the job market stand at around 1.2 Crores. Solution to this is employment in stricter sense of being engaged in productive work, not necessarily a job. Agnipath is one marvellous program which is bound to transform the lives of the selected Agniveers, whether they continue in the job or step out and become an entrepreneur.

The National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2021- the first exercise of the sort after Covid-19 pandemic struck India, has confirmed how badly school education has been hit by the Covid pandemic. For the first time, a study has quantified the impacts and extents, showing a sharp decline in the performance of majority of the students. Under NAS, about 34 lakh students from more than one lakh schools in 720 districts of the country, have been covered, showing a decline in national average percentage in a range of subjects. The average performance of schools in rural areas was significantly below than their counterparts in the urban areas. Around a quarter of students said they didn’t have an access to digital devices, so couldn’t take any advantage of the online education. Students from poor and rural background faced greater problems also because of the non-availability of parental support. Suspension of physical classes has led to germination of negativity in children.

School closure in India affected 320 million children enrolled from pre-primary to tertiary levels of education. It has been estimated that of these, about 158 million are female students. A parliamentary committee has observed that in the post-pandemic scenario, the probability of more adolescent girls dropping out of school permanently to help with household tasks and childcare due to the economic hardships of their families is very high. The daughters of the country know though how to fight back. They have been able to secure the top three ranks in the UPSC Civil Services 2021 Examination, results of which were declared today.

However, given the inevitable COVID circumstances, several steps and initiatives have helped in aiding the cause. India’s Public Broadcaster also filled the big vacuum by helping students across the country with their studies amidst lockdown. In collaboration with various State Government institutions, Doordarshan and All India Radio broadcasted virtual classes and other educational content through their regional channels across the country on TV and Radio. Prasar Bharati News Services & Digital Platform (PBNS) ensured digital availability of these classes via YouTube channels and NewsOnAIR.com APP and website. These virtual classes helped Lakhs of students, especially the 10th and 12th standard students in preparation for their board and competitive examinations.

Further, Union Budget this year made another special announcement for the Indian education sector and that is the well-thought plan of the Centre to establish a Digital University in the country. While making this announcement, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, “A digital University will be established to provide access to the students across the country for world-class quality universal education with a personalised learning experience at their doorsteps.” This university will be a solution to many a problems like shortage of seats in university system, lack of quality education and teachers, etc. which force scores of students to end up with little or insignificant choices. This initiative will also ensure inclusivity as the students belonging to lower strata of the society; normally find it hard to make it to the top institutions because of the lack of access. Measures like e-Vidya, One Class One Channel, digital labs, digital universities will create an educational infrastructure, which will provide better education solutions to the students living in villages and small towns, and belonging to poor socio-economic and educational set up.

India passed National Education Policy 2020 at the right time too. Under NEP, a well designed framework is all set to bring deep educational reforms which focus on development of both technical and soft-skills among scholars. It lays emphasis on inquiry-based, discovery-based, and analysis-based ways to help children learn. Employability is also in fact one of the parts of the policy. Indian students have for so long failed to get decent and appropriate employment opportunities on the basis of their earned professional degrees. The NEP fixes this as it envisions to empower students through encouragement of a set of vocational, employable & entrepreneurial skills provided to them at different stages of training & education.

Soft skills and personality have started playing much bigger role in life than one’s academic performances. The rate at which the world order and sciences are changing, it is observed that many career trajectories in the coming years would require employees to have wide knowledge in diverse fields and subjects. Various studies do suggest that exposure to arts and social sciences results in enhanced creativity, improved critical thinking, higher social and moral awareness, problem-solving, social and circumstantial adaptability, better teamwork and communication skills among students.

India has come up with The National Policy on Education (NEP), which promises many solutions to the rising complexities of education, works and life. A broad-based, multi-disciplinary and holistic under-graduation is one such solution, as it includes flexible curriculum, creative combinations of subjects, integration of vocational education and multiple entry and exit points with appropriate certification. NEP envisages multi-disciplinarity in higher education with an aim to produce well-rounded individuals from universities, helping realize the full potential of India’s demographic dividend. Such qualities are in high demand in the 21st-century economy where no sector of the economy works in a silo.

The NEP aims at de-compartmentalize Indian education and breaking the rigid and artificial barriers between professional vs liberal education. It rightly points out that even in ancient times, good education was described as the knowledge of the 64 kalas or arts. This included knowledge in scientific fields like chemistry and mathematics, vocational fields such as carpentry and clothes-making, professional fields such as medicine and engineering, as well as soft skills such as communication, debate and discussion. Hence, students from humanities’ background are needed to be equipped with the latest technological know-how to suit to the needs and produce greater and holistic results.

Several institutions like IIT Bombay and others have already introduced an interdisciplinary undergraduate course that includes liberal arts, science and engineering in one programme. Others have also started exploring the possibilities of offering multidisciplinary courses. Under multi-disciplinary system, UG education can be of 3 or 4 years with multiple exit options and appropriate certification is provided within this period. For example, a certificate after 1 year, advanced diploma after 2 years, bachelor’s degree after 3 years and bachelor’s with research after 4 years. An Academic Bank of Credit is in the process for digitally storing academic credits earned from different HEIs, so that these can be transferred and counted towards final degree earned. The NEP also envisions setting up of Model public Universities for holistic and multidisciplinary education at par with IITs and IIMs, called MERUs (Multidisciplinary Education and Research Universities) which aims to attain the highest global standards in quality education. Students being able to use learnings in leading a well balanced life can be achieved by such holistic approach towards studies in youth years. Naturally, this is bound to impart the abilities and skills of lifelong learning, a must have for the VUCA world!

The working landscape of India is being changed through transformational reforms and also according to how technology is shaping up in the third decade of the 21st century. While the first two decades of the century were driven by jobs being done by people falling in the age group of 25-35, since last couple of years, the world has rightly shifted its focus on nurturing young minds (age group 15-25) and on the endorsement of developing a skill-based and tech-oriented mindset among youth. As the work culture evolves rapidly around the globe and as more and more people switch to gathering domain knowledge and intellectual finesse, India’s implementation of NEP 2020 is going to be a key factor in its aim to equip manpower to lead unprecedented industry change.

National Education Policy 2020, one of the landmark and transformative ideas in higher education policy promoted by the Narendra Modi government, lays emphasis on inquiry-based, discovery-based, and analysis-based ways to help children learn. Under NEP 2020, a well designed framework is all set to bring deep educational reforms which focus on development of both technical and soft-skills among scholars. Employability is also in fact one of the parts of the policy. Indian students have for so long failed to get decent and appropriate employment opportunities on the basis of their earned professional degrees. The NEP fixes this as it envisions to empower students through encouragement of a set of vocational, employable & entrepreneurial skills provided to them at different stages of training & education. This will also inspire talented youth to become self-employed professionals.

In addition to this, engaging with them on a mass level through various educational and vocational training programmes has been a good thing to start with, bringing the kind of momentum students and seekers need to find their spots in the fast-evolving educational landscape, which is both practical and agile.

Efforts are also being made to further get the change rightly incorporated in the minds of the students on a very early stage, one of the initiative being the Pariksha Pe Charcha programme. There is a phenomenal response from the students, parents and teachers alike over the programme which is moderated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Lakhs of people have shared their valuable insights towards this year’s ‘Pariksha Pe Charcha’ too. PM Modi is going to interact with students, teachers, parents in a hybrid mode from Talkatora Stadium in New Delhi on 1st of April.

This is the 5th edition of Pariksha Pe Charcha. Earlier, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan called upon students, teachers and parents to make PPC 2022 a public movement. Underlining the importance of initiatives like PPC in building the knowledge-based economy of 21st century, Pradhan said that PPC is becoming a formal institution through which Prime Minister interacts directly with students. India has ushered in a new era of educating Indians as well as the international community through multi-modal ways and digital platforms to create One India, Excellent India. Indian students have been going abroad for pursuing higher education for so long. With new changes, the country now seeks to reverse the process by having a world-class flexible education system and is already on the task.

Today, India is well on its way to having a decisive decade of growth in the 2020s, backed by a reformist government that has consistently provided policy support to boost the economy. The country has emerged as a favoured investment destination, giving boost to industries, creating new jobs, attracting latest technology, and providing fillip to new and upcoming sectors. Core to all of these is reforms in the education process, being led from front by NEP.