Image by Sasin Tipchai from Pixabay 

The above question is raised every time by individuals concerned about their future. In developing countries like India, this is an often witnessed phenomenon. In the suddenly struck pandemic of COVID-19, most industrial sectors were severely affected, ultimately leading to the scrapping of the upcoming job opportunities along with the existing ones, leading the worldwide economy towards a crash and thereby invoking a global recession. 

In India, the extent of unemployment had exponentially increased due to the pandemic, almost all the industries had badly suffered in terms of job loss; millions of employed people lost their jobs and the aspiring ones could not grab any. Due to the nationwide lockdown imposed, many migrant workers dependent on daily wages had to set out for their homes because of no income. This deeply affected the national economy. 

"Does the ‘Indian Academic Curriculum’ actually make the students employable?" Seeing the current career scopes of the upcoming youth soon gives rise to this question because India’s Education Culture is not accountable for ensuring that the students possess employability skills and be capable enough so they can prepare themselves to aim for a stable career, which would help them to be financially stable in future.

Also, the recent wave of international companies undertaking the action of layoffs negotiates the significance of the existence of a competent, efficient and skilled workforce for the companies based in India, amid the trajectory of the Indian economy tending towards an increasing curve with the least probability of the economy to undergo a recession. 

Here, the students are just fed with theoretical knowledge from the book and they never explore the world, hence they lack practical skills. They are also debarred from participating in the co-curricular activities helpful for their overall character and skill development. They are always directed to engulf themselves with bookish knowledge all around themselves and be in the rat race to survive. 

Not just the school but also the typical social environment of the country contributes to this sham and makes the students work on the principle “Life is a race”, and so the throat-cut competition begins right from their childhood with their grades in school. Individuals with pre-adapted talents and a dream do not get any attention in schools and scholars are always prioritized. Hence, they are forcibly made to be studious; thus, most end up killing their dreams and doing something without their mental consent.

Creativity is a passion which is learnt through one’s mistakes in life and not a skill possessed by someone, the schools don’t get this. The student’s academic career is determined by their memory rather than their intelligence and creativity. Projects and assignments are given, where they are asked to use their creativity which is later borrowed from the World Wide Web, this consists of zero creativity. 

The exam-oriented learning has become outdated. Skills matter more than academics. This is the reason why many meritorious candidates get rejected in job interviews/placements and end up being idle or applying for a job for which they are educationally overqualified or something in which they lack interest; hence their entire learning gets irrelevant. The Academies in India do not provide the training for skills required by the students to attract the employer of the companies to recruit them and so the right talent is not hired for the job. 

The mindset of the typical Indian society is periodically backwards to a level that they are not even convinced of someone looking to build up a startup or an individual tending to build a career based on the potential possessed by the individual for the passion followed by him/her. 

An average Indian family wants their children to complete their education and grab a job with the utmost job security for a stable financial condition that too with a gender gap. However, we have seen a revolution in the past few years with people breaking this stereotype and leading to India having one of the fastest-growing start-up cultures, contributing significantly in terms of unicorn startups built in India. 

Also, an emphasis from the ideal youth icons on skill development has been induced which the youngsters of the nation have appreciated and duly accepted. A positive impact of this has also been witnessed by the country that too in the post-pandemic era. 

Besides this, the current ruling Government has also been keenly taking interest in this field looking at the prospects and importance of this in the country's growth keeping in mind India has the largest youth population focus. Hence, they have proposed a change in the education system with the new National Education Policy (NEP) drafted in 2020 which would focus on vocational skills rather than knowledge from books. 

It gives out the provision to involve students in attaining vocational skills and kinds of stuff like coding which would make them skillfully excellent, thus it becomes easier for them to be successful in their lives. If implemented properly, this will make the students more eligible to get employed in their desired fields. The students are also allowed to be flexible while choosing their subjects by omitting the discriminatory stream system that divides them. If this happens then whatever they will learn will be surely relevant and they will be future-ready.

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