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Panel Discussion
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Panel Discussion 1 |
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Topic:
Demographic Dividend of India: Education as a
Turnaround Factor |
India enjoys a
natural demographic advantage with a high
percentage of youth. Estimates show
that in 2020, an average person will only be 29
years old in India, compared to 37 years in
China, 45 years in Western Europe, and 48 years
in Japan. Also, by 2020 the US will be short of
17 million working age people, China 10 million,
Japan 9 million, and Russia 6 million, whereas
India will have a surplus of 47 million.
Therefore, it is argued that India possesses the
potential to benefit from the ‘demographic
dividend’ many long years into the future, and
significantly longer than China.
But, at the same time, the quality of the Indian
youth is a factor to be concerned about. For
example, IT, India’s leading sector is estimated to
face a shortfall of 500,000 professionals by
2010, because out of 3 million students
graduating from Indian universities each year,
only about 25 per cent of engineering graduates
and 10-15 per cent of general college graduates
are considered suitable for employment in the IT
industry. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has
warned that India ”cannot continue to claim to
be a rising knowledge power if less than
8 per cent of its college-going age group is
enrolled in the college and university system.”
India is a sought
after destination due to its inherent advantage
of cheap labor, but are we risking the danger of
not being able to provide adequately and
appropriately skilled labour to the booming job
market? Is the sheer size of the population enough
to lead India to a higher growth path and to place it
as a major manufacturing and services hub?
In this light, through the panel discussion we
are trying to analyse education as a
contributory factor to improving the quality of
manpower in India. We wish to get different
points of view on the challenges outlined above
and the ways and means through which education
can be a factor to tackle this challenge
effectively. We have panel members voicing
opinions, facts, and perspectives from the
following sections of society:
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Government
- Corporate
- NGOs
- Media
- Academia
The esteemed panel
group includes:
The panel will be
moderated by a student.
Duration: 1 hour
for perspectives (10 minutes for each
participant) and 40 minutes for discussion and
Q&A; Total 100 minutes
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Panel Discussion 2 |
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Topic:
Stakeholders in the Education Sector-
Challenges and Solutions |
Achieving universal primary Education is
one of the millennium development goals set-up
by the United Nations. Various stakeholders in
the education sector in India are striving to
achieve this target. A lot of efforts in this
direction have been done so far by both the
government and non-government organisations in
India. Due to the sheer size of the country- the
population and its diversity- it is a Herculean
task by all standards. We have faced challenges
and taken them on to move ahead towards the goal
of education for all in India. While some
challenges were overcome, most of them are
persisting still.
Experts from 5 NGOs working
in the field of the education will share their
views as discussed above and facilitate an
opportunity for cross learning among the
various stakeholders present at the Conclave.
The
challenges in the field of education
sector- those that the participating
NGOs came across while trying to reach
the goal of providing quality education
will be discussed. The NGOs would share their experiences
of how they dealt with such issues, which
ones they overcame, and which ones they
are still trying to overcome. Apart from
the administrative issues, the focus
will be on challenges like the financial
background of children, education for
the girl child and for special children
(spastics, visually or hearing impaired,
etc.), child psychology in school
education and accessibility of school for
children.
The esteemed panel
group includes:
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Dr A Saibaba Goud, Founder, Devnar
Foundation for the Blind
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Verghese Jacob, Lead Partner at Byrraju
Foundation
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Dr Preetha Bhakta of Naandi Foundation
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Raheem from MV Foundation
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Devaki Kumar, Project Coordinator at
Ashray Akriti
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