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Mission 2020 for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)

By
digitalLEARNING Network
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Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan_SSA

Is Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) likely to be extended to 2020? Going by available information, it is likely. The Education for All movement of the Government of India, operational since 2000-2001, is aimed at the universalisation of elementary education in a time bound manner, writes T Radhakrishna of Elets News Network (ENN).

Initiated by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the programme envisage at developing human capabilities to all children through provision of community-owned quality education in a mission mode. It is a response to the demand for quality basic education all over the country.

The Government of India, in 2011-12 fiscal allocated Rs 21,000 crore for this project. In 2015, the funds sharing pattern of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) was decided to be in the ratio of 60:40 between Centre and States (90:10 for the eighth NorthEastern States and three Himalayan States) with effect from the year 2015-16. The revision has been done in view of the higher devolution of funds to the States from 32% to 42% as recommended by the 14th Finance Commission.

Some State Governments namely Bihar, Odisha, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and West Bengal had raised their concern about interim reduction of the central share of funding in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) from 65% to 50%, which has subsequently been rationalized to 60% based on the report of the Sub-Group of Chief Ministers on Rationalisation of Centrally Sponsored Schemes.

The programme set out with an objective to provide useful and elementary education for all children in the 6-14 age group and to bridge social, regional and gender gaps with the active participation of community in the management of schools, among others. As per the goals set in 2015 the programme sought to open new schools in those habitations which do not have schooling facilities and strengthen existing school infrastructure through provision of additional classrooms, toilets, drinking water, maintenance grant and school improvement grants.

Key Features

  • Programme with a clear time frame for universal elementary education.
  • A response to the demand for quality basic education all over the country.
  • An opportunity for promoting social justice through basic education.
  • An expression of political will for universal elementary education across the country.
  • A partnership between the central, state and the local government.
  • An opportunity for states to develop their own vision of elementary education.

An effort at effective involving the Panchayati Raj Institutions, school management Committees, village and urban slum level Education Committees, parent’s Teachers’ Associations, Mother-Teacher Associations, Tribal Autonomous Councils and other grassroots level structures in the management of elementary schools.

Objectives

  • To provide useful and elementary education for all children in the 6-14 age group.
  • To bridge social, regional and gender gaps with the active participation of community in the management of schools.
  • To allow children to learn about and master their natural environment in order to develop their potential both spiritually and materially.
  • To inculcate value-based learning that allows children an opportunity to work for each other’s well being rather than to permit mere selfish pursuits.
  • To realize the importance of Early Childhood Care and education and looks at the 0-14 age as a continuum.

2017: Education for All

Year 2017 has been a yet another landmark year in the field of education as ‘Education For All & Quality Education’ guided policy actions and decisions enabling transformation, that emphasized upon making education Available, Accessible, Affordable and Accountable.

Learning Outcomes

A frequent criticism against the RTE Act was that it did not adequately focus on issues promoting quality education in schools. Therefore, in a landmark step, the Rules to the RTE Act were amended in February 2017 to include, for the first time, the class wise, subject wise Learning Outcomes till Class VIII, thereby emphasizing the importance of quality education.

In this regard, Learning Outcomes for each class in Languages (Hindi, English and Urdu), Mathematics, Environmental Studies, Science and Social Science up to the elementary stage have been developed. These are the basic levels of learning that children should arrive at the end of each class.

Subsequently, 21 States and UTs, including Jammu and Kashmir, have incorporated the Learning Outcomes in their State Rules, while the remaining States have initiated the process, it is expected that this will be completed by the end of this year.

All the States and UTs have translated the Learning Outcomes document in their regional languages, and they are circulating these to all the teachers, and also providing them with the requisite training. Posters for display of Learning Outcomes on the schools along with leaflets on Learning Outcomes for reference of parents have been developed and circulated to all States and UTs. An amount of Rs 91.20 crore has been released by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India to all States and UTs for printing the Learning Outcomes documents, the Posters and the leaflets in regional languages, and for their distribution.

National Achievement Survey 2017-18

National Achievement Survey (NAS) which was earlier based on textbook content is now a competency based evaluation. As compared to only 4.43 lakh students who were earlier tested across Classes 3, 5 and 8, this time around 22 lakh students from around 1,10,000 schools across 700 districts of India (including rural and urban) were assessed in the year 2017- 18 (November 13, 2017) making it one of the largest sample surveys of student learning achievement.

This survey is an improvement over the previous cycles of NAS as it will be completed in the one full academic year. It will reflect the scores of the students and will be able to suggest academic intervention in the same academic year. District wise Result will be generated within 2 months of test conduction. NAS Reporting will show if the students’ learning levels are as per the learning outcomes of a particular grade. It will also look for association of school, teacher and students’ background variables with students’ achievements while analysing the data.

Through NAS 2017-18, it will be for the first time that the teachers will have a tool to understand what exactly the child should be learning in various classes, how to teach this through activities and how to measure and ensure that children have reached the required level. This will also help agencies at the District, State, and National level to conduct achievement surveys and assess the health of the system to improve upon the policy directives. Adding to this, for the first time, there will be detailed district-specific report cards for all the districts in the country.

Making Jharkhand ‘Skill Hub’ of India

By
digitalLEARNING Network
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Ravi Ranjan, Mission Director, Jharkhand Skill Development Mission Society
Ravi Ranjan, Mission Director, Jharkhand Skill Development Mission Society

To take care of huge skill gap and fulfill the ambitious skilling targets, the Government of Jharkhand is coming up with a comprehensive ‘State Skills Policy’ which aims at improving outcomes, expanding skill infrastructure with scale and speed, strengthening the skill development ecosystem, improving aspiration for skill development and incubating barefoot entrepreneurs, says Ravi Ranjan, Mission Director, Jharkhand Skill Development Mission Society, in conversation with Gopi Krishna Arora of Elets News Network (ENN).

What is the motto of Jharkhand Skill Development Mission Society (JSDMS)?

The motto is to be the engine of sustainable economic growth in the state by providing highly skilled and productive manpower to the industries and sustainable livelihood and JSDMS must conform to the National Skill Qualification framework (NSQf) and Common Cost Norms. Training is conducted through Training Service Providers (TSPs), which can be private companies, NGos or government institutions Selection of TSP for executing skill development schemes does not involve any price discovery. It is an empanelment process through scheme specific RfP wherein the endeavour is to select Training Service Providers with proven track record. Target allocation to the TSP is done after proper assessment of its capacity to train.

Centre accreditation is through the SMART portal and associated processes of NSDC. Quality Assurance including centre infrastructure requirements, curriculum/ content, course duration, Train the Trainer and assessments is done through respective Sector Skill Councils (SSCs). Pay-out to TSPs is done as per payment milestones and per hour cost rates defined under Common Cost Norms.

Mobilisation of trainees is done by the TSP and selection of candidate is done after proper counselling, as per his aspiration and minimum qualification requirement of the respective trade of training. Support to the mobilisation process is also made by the state government with the help of district administration by conducting job fares.

What are the current schemes being undertaken by the mission society?

Currently, three schemes are being run by the State. first is Saksham Jharkhand kaushal Vikas Yojna (SJkVY) under which training centers are located up to block levels throughout the State so that training can be imparted at the doorsteps of the trainees. Second, Mega Skill Centers (also known as Deendayal Upadhyay kaushal kendras, DDUkk), which are aspirational centres of minimum 15,000 sq ft area setup with corporate support for knowledge transfer and placements. Third is Employability Excellence with College Education and Learning (EXCEL), under which training for soft/communication skills, and domain skills is given to college going students.

The first two programmes are both residential and non-residential, whereas EXCEL is a purely non-residential programme.

How much a trainee needs to pay towards training and boarding/ lodging expenses?

All the courses are totally free of cost with regards to training, course material and boarding/lodging. Payments are made to the TSP by JSDMS as per common cost norms.

How are the courses selected and how do you ensure that these courses meet the job market needs?

Since it is a placement linked programme, courses are conducted for trades which are market relevant, offer good salary package and match youth aspirations.

The scheme focuses on youths of the State in the age group of 18-35 years. Skill Development courses are aligned to highimpact sectors including Tourism & hospitality, Telecom, Security, Retail, Plumbing, Logistics, IT/ITES, Electronics, Domestic Worker, Construction, Capital Goods, BfSI, Beauty & Wellness, Automotive, Apparel, and Agriculture etc.

Another factor which is taken into account while selecting a trade is the placement tie-of TSPs with various employers.

What key challenges are faced by JSDMS in improving the skill ecosystem in the state?

The major challenge we are facing right now is the lack of infrastructure to take care of huge skill gap and fulfill the ambitious skilling targets. There is an urgent need of establishing a large number of quality training centres covering a wide spectrum of job roles. Though the national skill ecosystem along with NSQf and its range of Qualification Packs (QPs) provides plenty of options, development of curriculum for Job roles assessed to be in high demand in Jharkhand and not yet included under the NSQf, pertaining to traditional arts and crafts in Jharkhand and offering more broad based and relatively longer duration skill development courses through suitable merging of QPs or stacks of National occupational Standards (NoS) is an important issue.

As is the case in rest of country, people prefer conventional education to technical skill development. It has more to do with prestige than employment. The youth needs to be taught that almost all the jobs today require skills in one form or the other, which could be either technical domain skills or the soft skills. In order to make it aspirational, we need to associate a sense of pride with  skills which could be done through rewards and recognition and upgrading the skill infrastructure to international standards. It is critical that skill development has vertical and logical horizontal pathways to ensure that skill development is not terminal in nature. Adequate placement commensurate to one’s abilities remains a major challenge and I believe this skill summit will go a long way in addressing the placement issues.

What are the steps being undertaken to overcome aforementioned challenges?

To address these issues the state is coming up with a comprehensive ‘State Skills Policy’, which will be launched in the skill summit. We aim at improving outcomes, expanding skill infrastructure with scale and speed, strengthening the skill development ecosystem, improving aspiration for skill development and incubating barefoot entrepreneurs. The state is giving incentives for capacity creation under Mega Skill Centres, embedding skills in academic education through EXCEL programme, preparing for Industry 4.0 through Centres of Excellence (CoEs) and entering into placement tie-ups with quality employers.

Tell us about the future plans, new initatives and policies of JSDMS.

We have many things lined up to make Jharkhand the ‘Skill hub’ of the country. Some of these are; Embedding Skills in Academic Education, Vocationalisation of Secondary and higher Secondary Education, integration of apprenticeship as part of competency based skill development courses, centres of excellence for training of trainers, opening of Migration Centres, making it mandatory to hire National Skills Qualification framework certified youth trained in Jharkhand for all relevant entry level jobs with the State Government entities and also with contractors pertaining to the workforce deployed on projects awarded by the State Government. We are also aiming at international collaboration for training and content development and placements and opening skill universities which will be developed as umbrella organisations for curriculum, content and certification in tandem with NSDC and SSCs.

Getting ready for 21st century careers

By
Akash
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With the interference of Information Technology in every sector, the careers in future will be totally different from now observes Prakash Menon,  President, Global Retail Business, NIIT Ltd for Elets News Network (ENN).

Digital has pervaded all aspects of life and is dictating the manner in which people now live and work. The world has witnessed high impact with the rise of the modern, cutting-edge, automated digital office.

Prakash Menon,  President, Global Retail Business, NIIT Ltd
Prakash Menon,  President, Global Retail Business, NIIT Ltd

Analysts are predicting that the workplace of the future will be a collaborative environment where human workers will rub shoulders with non-human colleagues (read that as Robots or Bots), with each side complementing the strengths of the other. Digitally-enabled jobs are going to be the new reality across sectors—from transportation, logistics, education, financial services and healthcare. While areas such as banking, retail and manufacturing are already on the path  of automation and have digitized their day-to-day  processes, the next level of growth in Digital will be driven by some of the new verticals mentioned above which will embrace technology with greater verve.

While all the Digital Transformation talk—of robots serving up pizzas, cars taking people everywhere without anyone being at the steering, diagnostics being performed on patients remotely—is all very well and portends a brand new world, it also raises significant issues and concerns.

Primary among them is the fact that in the emerging technology-led, high-tech environment, skills or should one say digital skills will play a significant part. While it  is extremely exciting to hear about the potential of  technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and SMAC (Social, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud), and the immense possibilities they are opening up, one has to understand that they require an all new set of skills and expertise.

Creating value, creating jobs

Going forward, Digital Transformation is expected to be a major value creator for nations, especially India, which is taking firm strides in this space.

According to global management consulting firm McKinsey & Co, Digital Transformation is expected to create USD 1 trillion in value and sustain 55-60 million jobs in India by 2025! There is however a caveat. McKinsey says that of the figure of 55-60 million workers, which are expected to be sustained by India’s Digital economy in 2025, an estimated 40 million will need to be retrained and redeployed in new job roles.

Take the instance of India’s tech juggernaut—the IT-BPM industry, the earliest adopter of and catalyst for digital in the country—which is already focusing on future-proofing of its workforce through re-skilling in Digital technologies. Expected to the biggest generator of digitally-enabled jobs, the sector will require a whole new, digitally articulated generation of professionals who can add value to organisations.

Besides the tech sector, all other industry verticals too will opt for workers who fit their digital profiles. This also means that today’s learners (tomorrow’s knowledge professionals) have a wide spectrum of skills they can choose from, depending on the career path they want to embrace.

Today, unlike previous decades, it is no longer mandatory for students to go for traditional career choices such as engineering or medicine. As they say, there is life beyond that. The digital wave as we are all becoming aware, is throwing up a host of new domains that young learners can pick from while planning their future. They can in fact start soon after class 12, being the early birds in the realm of relevant skilling and make smart choices. Instead of targeting at the once coveted ‘Graduation’ degree, learners can decide to be more focused and aim for the skills that will be critical in the Digital age. In this way they can ensure that they are able to catch the attention of hirers, remain on top of the employability index and are of course ‘job-industry-hour-one ready’.

And truly, in the existing Digital environment, the world is their oyster and options limitless.

Skills to aspire for and acquire

Among the hot skills that Class 12 pass-outs (especially those who are good at Math) can acquire is Business analytics, a technology that global research and advisory firm Gartner Inc. says will be deployed by 75 percent of the world’s leading organizations. To be equipped with Business Analytics skills, students will have to choose a course that exposes them to technologies such as SPARK, Hive, and visualization tools like Tableau and Qlickview.

Data Science is the other preferred field and here students must look for programs that focus on technologies like R programming, and SAS.

Students keen on a career in coding (especially in Java) can go for training in Mean Stack which covers skills in MongoDB, Express.js, Angular and Node.js. They can also consider a program in DevOps, which will train them to become developers while providing them an understanding of IT operational processes. Owing to the sweeping Digital wave, advanced programming skills are back with a bang and a course in DevOps would be in order.

Other exciting fields include Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Robotics which are becoming popular, especially among Gen Y. To know more about these areas and find a fit here, students will have to enroll for courses that offer them insights into state-of-the-art automation tools and techniques. Machine Learning in particular is important, as in order to be skilled in AI implementation, students need to have expertise in Machine Learning techniques.

If they are looking for a career in Digital Marketing, (considered by McKinsey & Co to be a preferred skill in the current scenario), this would be the perfect time to join a program that teaches them all about e-mail marketing, blog promotions, and Facebook advertising.

As of now, there are a plethora of programmes that students can choose from post Class 12 to ready themselves for the 21st century. However, in selecting a training organization they need to be judicious and discerning, picking only the brands that are known for their market leadership, longevity and experience, reliability, high quality of content and flawless delivery. Global skills and talent development major NIIT, a household name in India, is offering online courses in many of these industry segments and preparing young learners for the future, which as analysts will proclaim, is already here.

JSDMS: Paving Way for Jharkhand to be India’s Skill Hub

By
Akash
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The Government of Jharkhand through its different departments is running various skill development schemes for the skilled workforce in the State. The role being played by Jharkhand Skill Development Mission Society (JSDMS) in effective implementation  of every scheme and in skilling youth in the State, shares Jharkhand Skill Development Mission Society (JSDMS) Chief Executive Officer Amar Jha.

Amar Jha, Chief Executive Officer, Jharkhand Skill Development Mission Society (JSDMS)
Amar Jha, Chief Executive Officer, Jharkhand Skill Development Mission Society (JSDMS)

JSDMS was registered on 1 October, 2013 under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 to function as an autonomous organisation under the Department of Planning and Development, Government of Jharkhand (GoJ). The GoJ notification number 998 dated August 11, 2016 established JSDMS as an autonomous body under Department of higher, Technical Education and Skill Development.

Skill Development Schemes:

Pilot Phase: Skill Development programmes in the State commenced with the launch of a pilot phase in 2016 by signing of a MoU with 21 Training Service Providers (TSP), delivering training programme at 38 centers and completing about 2,545 trainees and placement of 731 beneficiaries.

Saksham Jharkhand Kaushal Vikas Yojana (SJKVY): The skilling programme picked up pace in the State with the launch of SJkvy (Main phase) by Chief Minister Raghubar Das on 27 December, 2016. JSDMS signed MoU with 39 Training Service Providers (TSPs) running National Skills Qualifications framework (NSQf) compliant skill development programmes in about 30 industrial sectors providing benefit to about 25,000 youths of Jharkhand, aged between 18 and 35.

Deen Dayal Upadhyay Kaushal Kendra (DDUKK): JSDMS made a big leap in skill sector with the launch of five DDUkk also known as Mega Skill Centres, on 15 July, 2017. As of now 15 such centres are running in the State, providing training to about 7,000 youths. Each DDUkk works in line with the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. These centres provide scale, speed and standard to the skill programmes in the State. The infrastructure facilities at DDUkk required a minimum area of 15,000 sq ft for training of 2,000 candidates in every centre annually delivering multi sector curriculum of at least 576 hours duration, with Industry alignment.

Employability Excellence with College Education & Learning (EXCEL): It is a unique programme designed for 10+2 pass out college-going and non-collegiate students of the State. The scheme helps students who do not want to continue with traditional education in the college in choosing alternate career options. Other than trade skills, the programme provides 405 hours of soft skills and life skills training to the college students to make them employable as per the industry requirement. The scheme aims to benefit 51,000 youths in nearly 100 colleges in next four years.

Center of Excellence (CoE): With a vision to provide world-class training programmes to the youth of Jharkhand, JSDMS, has signed MoU with Institute of Technical Education (ITE) Singapore. The expert team of ITE has conducted On Site Situation Analysis of skilling in Jharkhand from 1-4 August 2017 and submitted its report on the 9 October, 2017. The project envisages a brown field development in ITI hehal in 2018 and a Green field development in Pundag in the next three years, providing world class training in seven industrial sectors. The CoE will also encompass a Training of Trainers Academy (TOTA) and a Research and Development Centre for evolution of a robust skill ecosystem in the State. The programme envisages not only placement in Jharkhand and India but meeting overseas industry expectations as well. It will help the youth of Jharkhand to get attractive salary package and better lifestyle.

Skill Development programmes in the State commenced with the launch of a pilot phase in 2016 by signing of a MoU with 21 Training Service Providers (TSP), delivering training programme at 38 centers and completing about 2,545 trainees and placement of 731 beneficiaries.

Skill Summit 2018

The Government of Jharkhand hosted a very successful Global Investors Summit (GIS) Momentum Jharkhand in february 2017 and signed 210 MoUs attracting investment from all over the world. Three ground-breaking ceremonies have been held, realising those MoUs on the ground. The industries being set up in Jharkhand will require skilled human resource as a key component for a sustainable economic model. The visionary leadership of the State has quickly realised the need and has formulated a mutually supportive strategy to skill the youth of Jharkhand, matching the expectations of those industries. Skill Summit is planned to be held on the very next year of Momentum Jharkhand to bring the focus on skilled human resource for the industries.

Skill Summit 2018 being organised on 12 January, 2018 will showcase the skill ecosystem of Jharkhand, whereby several ministers, eminent personalities of respective field, industry leaders, diplomats, country partners and government officials will attend the day-long event.

The summit will also host three sectoral seminars on contemporary tracks and 36 stalls by various Industries, Sector Skill Council (SSC) and Mega Skill Training partners presenting the robust skill ecosystem of the State.

The eventual goal of any skill development programme is employment for youth. To demonstrate employability of the skilled youth, the Government of Jharkhand is distributing 25,000 job offers on 12 January, 2018, the birth anniversary of Swami vivekananda celebrated as the National youth Day. JSDMS along with all other Departments of GoJ has conducted threemonth long Campus Placement Drives, Job fairs, Industry Connect Programmes and Employer’s Conclave to provide jobs to youth. These fairs and drives helped us to achieve our objective.

Expert Opinion

UNESCO Strategy for Technical and vocational Education and Training (TvET) 2016-21 aims to support the effort of member States to enhance relevance of their TvET system to equip all youth with the skills required for employment, decent work, entrepreneurship and lifelong learning and contribute to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. There are 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) adopted in September 2015 in New york and SDG 4.4 calls for a sustainable increase in the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills. One major reason for youth unemployment is structural unemployment, which means the skill gap between workforce and industry requirements.

The eventual goal of any skill development programme is employment for youth. To demonstrate employability of the skilled youth, the Government of Jharkhand is distributing 25,000 job offers on 12 January, 2018, the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda celebrated as the National Youth Day.

JSDMS is making efforts to bridge the structural unemployment gap, with Industry Connect. The Government of Jharkhand as a prelude to Skill Summit 2018 has carried out Employers’ Conclave and Industry Specific Campus Placement Drives all over the State. Along with this, the society set up 14 Campus Placement Centres, organised Sector Skill Council Summits and conducted various other direct industry engagement programs, which has delivered positive results in terms of placement of youth.

The Jharkhand Government has drafted a skill policy to be launched during the Skill Summit 2018. The policy is supposed to attract investment in the skill sector as well as lay a roadmap for skill ecosystem in the State. The concept note has also been prepared for setting up Skill University in the state, which will usher in the path of horizontal and vertical career movement for skilled youth. JSDMS through hUNAR portal provides a convergence platform for all the State Government Departments to build a robust skill ecosystem.

Message

With the message of “Skilling youth, Enabling growth” the Government is geared up for an era of accelerated and sustainable economic growth of the State, skilling the local human resource, minimising distress migration and thereby achieving a win-win situation for the industry and the youth of Jharkhand.

The policy, processes, systems and skilling strategy in the State is aligned to meet the industry expectations, making the youth future Ready.

 

Prakash Javadekar to release new industry specific curriculum: AICTE Chairman

By
Akash
-

Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar will unveil the new engineering syllabus on January 24, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) Chairman Dr Anil Sahasrabudhe announced.

“The current engineering syllabus has become very old. That’s why changes have been made in the syllabus. By next week, the new engineering syllabus will be announced and from the next academic year, all engineering colleges across the country will start implementing it,” said Dr Sahasrabudhe.

The step has been taken in line with the initiative of In revising the curriculum on regular basis to meet the needs of industry and other sectors.

The AICTE Chairman has made the announcement in Pune while inaugurating two new schemes by the council. He also revealed that 11 expert subject committees have been working on suggestions to overhaul the old syllabus.

He also said that the students taking admission in engineering courses would now required to undergo a mandatory three-week orientation programme.

“The students come from diverse backgrounds. Many of them come from rural areas and may not be well-versed in English, even though they are bright students. It is necessary to create a level playing field and that’s what these orientation workshops would do,” Sahasrabudhe added.

MHRD’s grants under RUSA to be used for infrastructure development

By
Akash
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The Ministry of Human Resource Development has released the second installment of Rs four crore under Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) for development of infrastructure in seven colleges of Chandigarh.

The Project Approval Board (PAB) of RUSA had sought approval for Rs 20 crore for building infrastructure but the MHRD has released on the basis of percentage utilization of earlier grant by the colleges in Chandigarh.

Additional State Project Director of RUSA, Chandigarh, Dalip Kumar said that each college eligible for grant allocation will be issued a priority list with deadline for projects proposed by them under RUSA. A meeting for the same would be called soon.

According to RUSA regulations, the infrastructure grants can be utilised by the colleges for new constructions like classrooms and laboratories for existing as well as for new programmes at undergraduate and post graduate levels. The funds can also be used for modernisation of sports facilities, and renovating academic, administrative block and toilets.

Upgradation of software learning resource and libraries, refurbishment of hostels, and furniture can also be procured using the grant under RUSA.

Digital Literacy: 50 Million Jobs available by 2021

By
Akash
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Digital literacy comprises the knowledge and skills, required to use digital devices smartphones, tablets, laptops etc for communication. To boost digital literacy in a country, it is very important to impart related skills in local languages, observes Arvind Pani, Co-founder and CEO, Reverie Language Technologies for Elets News Network (ENN).

Digital literacy is on the rise in India, thanks to proactive government policies. The user base of Indian languages grew from 43 million in 2011 to 234 million in 2016. The number is expected to grow further at an additional rate of 18% to 536 million. Similarly, English language users are also likely to grow by a 3% to reach 199 million. Over 50 crore Indians use Hindi for their daily communication, while only 0.06% of websites are in Hindi, similarly other languages too. This shows a huge mismatch in demand and supply.

Digital literacy, resources, and services will become universally accessible if they are made accessible in Indian languages. Nine out of 10 new Internet users are not proficient in English, so it is fair to say that almost all user growth is coming from non-English users. Key drivers for the growth of language users are National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) and Digital India programme.

National Programmes

The Prime Minister of India laid emphasis on the NeGP and Digital India.  Digital India, an ambitious programme, is estimated to cost around Rs 1,13,000 crore. It will prepare India for its eventual transformation to a knowledge economy and for delivering good governance to citizens, through synchronized and coordinated engagement with both the Central and State Governments. This vision of Digital India provides an intensified impetus for e-Governance and promotes inclusive growth, covering electronic services, products, devices, manufacturing and job opportunities. New digital infrastructure will focus on providing secure high speed Internet, making services available in real time for both online and mobile platforms. Digital empowerment of citizens will be built on universal digital literacy and the availability of digital services in Indian languages.

Industry Report

A report by KPMG and Google, identifies a number of app and web categories that currently have low penetration rates in India but could see rapid growth if local language integration picks up. Payments, government services, news and classifieds are all predicted to grow at a compound annual growth rate between 26% and 34% from 2016 to 2021 if there is local language expansion.

For example, among those who traditionally shop offline, 50% were willing to shift online if provided with an end-to-end Indian language experience. Similarly, over 60% of rural users consider language a barrier to accessing online government services, says the report.

Increased use of Indian languages on the Internet will come as a relief to them, and more importantly, will build engagement and allow them to access government services online. It could also help better dissemination of regional news as almost 60% of Indian language users prefer local language news. Also, 90% of users are more likely to respond to a digital advertisement in their local language as compared to English ads.

Technological advancement could aid and encourage the increased use of local languages. Other factors that will contribute in bringing India’s next billion online are reduced data charges, rising disposable income, growth in overall Internet penetration, increased smartphone production, improvement in digital literacy, and the introduction of digital literacy in Indian languages at all school levels.

Private sector can design and execute this while also researching and providing low cost ways to make Indian language friendly devices and websites more widespread. The quality of digital content in local languages is low despite how much demand there is for it – a big opportunity for companies. A large captive audience already exists for content in regional languages.

Today, many companies have started realizing the importance of regional languages, and have started offering local language versions of websites and applications. Advertising industries are early adopters in using local languages for their target audiences. The entertainment industry, comprising of media, television, and film, is a great example of how big the audience for regional language content is. Social media has also benefitted from the Internet boom in India, and they allow you to share content in local languages in form of text, images, audio, and video.

Even a small percentage of each language’s speaker base makes for a huge user base. For example, 7% of Telugu speakers mean 7 million users. This is a huge market for any industry – with the growth in Internet reach and the decrease in Internet prices; people are consuming more digital content in their own language.

Computational linguistics have helped in building predictive keyboard in several lesser used languages like Sanskrit, Santhali and Sindhi. All this will ensure more than 50 million jobs by 2021, mainly based on the demand for digital content in Indian language across various platforms. If both government and private partner, the development of the Indian Internet and the adoption of Internet services by Indian language could generate 53 million livelihoods by 2021. This is calculated assuming a job to user ratio in India of 1:10 and local language Internet user population of 536 million by 2021. (Views presented in the article above are of author’s)

CISF, new security consultant for schools

By
Akash
-

To avoid incident like student killing in a Gurugram school, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) experts have begun a mega exercise of auditing security in several schools of Mumbai, Hyderabad and Kolkata.

CISFCISF which is mandated to guard major Indian civil airports has also a unique security consultancy wing. The central paramilitary force has prepared a blueprint is shows that separate team of experts have begun work to provide foolproof security solutions at the Podar Education Network in Mumbai, Oakridge International Schools in Hyderabad and St Xavier’s in Kolkata.

According to a senior CISF official, “Separate board of officers has been constituted and they are on job to draw a professional and sound security plan for the safety of students and staff of these schools. Five more schools across the country have sent in their final approvals and such expert teams will soon begin their work at their facilities too.”

CISF Director General (DG) O P Singh said that the proposal sent to the schools is getting a “good and positive response” adding “We took up this initiative as part of our responsibility towards the society. We are always happy to extend help of our professional services.”

In September, 2017, a class second student of the Ryan International School in Gurugram was found dead in the school’s bathroom which triggered this all-India exercise by the force. In November last year, the force had dispatched letters to a number of schools across the country offering its help in creating a “safe and secure” environment for their students.

Through the letter, CISF assured the schools to provide its professional but chargeable security solutions that will be custom-made for them.

Jharkhand : A Futuristic Vision for Golden Tomorrow

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-
Success

Jharkhand is young and transforming rapidly. the state with 70 per cent of its population under 35 years is ushering a new era of speedy economic growth by shedding its image from a mining economy to a services and manufacturing hub in East India. the current growth is leading the state towards a developed one in shorter time span.

Satish kaushal, Industry Leader and Associate Partner, Ernst & Young
Satish kaushal, Industry Leader and Associate Partner, Ernst & Young

In recently concluded “momentum Jharkhand” campaign, both Indian and international industry leaders reposed tremendous confidence in ths state by signing over 200 mous that in turn promises employment of over six lakh youth in new industries to be set up in the state in next five years.

With some of the best institutions like BIt messra, XLRI Jamshedpur, Indian Institute of mining dhanbad and Ranchi university, Jharkhand is investing more to improve its education system and to set up more technical and higher education institutions of global repute. However the state, over the years, has witnessed the migration of its youth to work in different parts of the country on low wages.

Driven by Prime minister Narendra modi’ vision, “matching job creation with industry demand is the key to end unemployment”, the Jharkhand Government is resolutely preparing youth for all sectors that are in great demand in India and overseas. the Government is also nurturing the future-ready skills in youth as Industry 4.0 is going to change the ways we will work, interact and communicate in future.

In this light, Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar das has declared that the state Government will train “at least one member of every poor family to make them independent”, so that they can get jobs anywhere or start their own venture. He drives the vision” By strengthening the youth we will be able to strengthen the state”.

It is important to understand what it means when a state sets its target of skilling 20 lakh youth in 5 years. Rarely a state connects so well on outcome it will enable every 3rd household in the state to have a skilled worker in five years which in long term will result into a highly skilled society ready to compete, more productive and self-reliant.

Unlike many other states, Jharkhand government has created a very robust administrative set up wherein all departments are collaborating with Jharkhand skills development society (Jsdms) as its nodal institution to facilitate skilling at different levels – schools, colleges and universities. the whole programme is being driven through a very well-orchestrated skill Policy 2018.

It’s vital to have overview of the state’s present skill ecosystem and few of the salient features of the skill Policy which provides tremendous value and benefits to all stake holders – Youth, training Providers and Entrepreneurs looking forward to make investments in skill domain:

Creating new Capacities for Scaling Skills to new heights: state already has 15 mega skill centres. with a view to skill candidates in different sectors under one roof, the state has put its goal towards setting up 100 mega skill centres in five years.

Expanding Current base of Sakasham Centers: Based on Nsdc/sector skill councils framework, the programme will get additional support from state’s organisations through mobilization and placement. Providing job offers to 25,000 youth of Jharkhand is a step in that direction only.

Jobs for Future: the world is moving towards aligning on its own due to Industry 4.0 revolution. the revolution will bring forth new technology requirements such as Adoption of machine Language, Robotics, Block chain, Iot and Artificial Intelligence. In order to grab the opportunity, the Government of Jharkhand has already started establishing centres with siemens software Ltd, oracle, cIsco, HPE and others. Nearly 20 such centres are training the students in aforementioned areas. the Government is looking forward to expand such centres and sign with other leading firms of India and overseas.

Employers Incentives: state skill Policy is outcome focused and hence it is necessary to work with reputed employers of the country. state skill Policy is perhaps first of its kind in the country that looks forward to provide major fiscal benefits on achieving reasonable targets.

Integrating higher Education with Skills: Jharkhand is one of the few states of India that have clearly set the vision of providing skills to the students pursuing higher studies so that they can be part of state’s GDP in early stages of their career. despite setting up a skill centre in colleges, Jharkhand in next two years is targeting to set up one skill centre in each of the 82 constituencies of the state. It will allow few colleges to have 3-4 skill centers. this model is in line with credit system in higher education and skills from countries like Germany, singapore and Australia.

Apprenticeship, Entrepreneurship and Inclusive Focus: state also has developed clear incentives to promote participation and contribution of youth in schemes with fiscal benefits and not limiting to employment as the only outcome of skills initiatives.

Ernst & Young (EY) is associated with Jharkhand Government in many sectors and domains. one of them is to work closely with department of Higher and technical Education and Jharkhand skill development mission society to support the state’s initiatives and policies to be implemented and executed on ground with great speed, transparent processes,best practices from country and overseas by a team of experts in areas of program execution, knowledge management and digital transformation. EY is humbled to be partner of the state in its journey to “skilling Youth, Enabling Growth”. we also feel grateful for that we are part of the mission “Building a Better working world” through leveraging the tools and programs being put in different centers of the state.

Nurturing Employable Work Force in Jharkhand

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-
Nurturing Employable Work Force in Jharkhand

Rakesh Kumar SinghDepartment of Labour, Employment and Training has taken various initiatives for the employment and skill training of youth in Jharkhand, says Rakesh Kumar Singh, Special Secretary– Labour, Employment and Training, and Director- Employment and Training, Government of Jharkhand.

What is the role of Department of Labour, Employment and Training in protecting the rights of workforce in organised and unorganised sector                                                                                   of Jharkhand?

According to the minimum Wages Act, it is ensured that wages are paid acecording to the skill category of workforce. We also ensure that the salary of workers in factories and shops is credited into their bank account. For the workers in unorganised sector, we are getting them registered and opening their bank accounts linked with Aadhaar cards for the safe and timely credit of their wages. We are also running different social security schemes for the benefit of workers in organised and unorganised sectors.

How the skill training is helping the workforce in getting exposure to employment opportunities?

The skilled workers have more chances of getting employed over unskilled workers. We are working extensively on skill training of workforce like for the ITI pass out trainees; we ensure that different recruitment camps are held regularly for their employment in different companies, organisations, factories or industries. A number of such drives have been conducted and more are proposed to be organised. We have contributed to the vision of Jharkhand chief minister of awarding appointment letter to 25,000 youth. Since November 1, we have awarded appointment letters to a good number of ITI pass outs who are now employed in different companies.

What initiatives have been taken by the department to ensure  employability among youth?

We act as a bridge between prospective trainees/employees and employers. So far, we have organised 43 employment exchange programmes. The portal jharkhandrojgar.nic. in has around 4 lakh registered youth under different categories such as nurses and as per different ITI trade. Whenever an employee registers on the portal in search of employees, we send SmS to all the trainees as per the eligibility criteria. The department then organises recruitment camps for selection of candidates as per their skills. For example, Apollo has recruited 21 nurses out of the trainees registered on our portal through a recently held employment exchange programme.

We have established Ranchi ITI as model ITI for which government of India has provided the financial grant. We are focussing on initiatives like centres of Excellence. At centres of Excellence, trainees get exposure of trades along with training of soft skills and computer operations. In current financial year, we are developing nine more ITIs as model ITIs

Soft skills are now an essential part of skill training, what is the role of Department of Labour, Employment and Training on that front?

We are inviting counselors in employment exchange programmes. We have also developed counselling centres to council the trainees. counselors help the trainees in improving their behaviour, language skills and if required suggest them to enroll in any short term training course for the same. We also refer candidates to JSDMS for soft skill training. In ITIs, seminars and talk shows are conducted for the candidates to improve their personality.

“During Momentum Jharkhand, different industries have participated in search of skilled manpower. We are trying to bring reputed employers across the nation. The summit will help the nation to know the immense potential Jharkhand has in the form of skilled workforce.”

What is the department’s road map for realising the chief minister’s vision of skilling 20 lakh youth of Jharkhand till 2022?

We have 59 Government ITIs and around 250 private ITIs which train around 30,000 candidates annually. by 2022, we have been given the target to train 2 lakh candidates out of 20 lakh which is achievable as per our current rate.

“Skill Summit 2018” is one of its kind conferences in India, what role will the conference play in bringing all the stakeholders on a common platform?

During momentum Jharkhand, different industries have participated in search of skilled manpower. We are trying to bring reputed employers across the nation. The summit will help the nation to know the immense potential Jharkhand has in the form of skilled workforce. It will boost the hiring of work force from the State as per the industry demand. The summit is expected to fulfill chief minster’s vision. It will take Jharkhand’s skill development programme to a new level and people will also get aware about the importance of skill.

What message would you like to give to the youth of Jharkhand?

According to prime minister of India, “skilling yourself is important” to take the advantage of Government’s various schemes, nowadays skills are also required along with degrees for students to be employable as practical training is equally important along with theoretical knowledge.

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