Development of human resources

— Dr Ratneswar Sarma
The North East has become the most distinctive and important part of the country. It has been hinted by no less a person than the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission M Ahluwalia. He also said that Guwahati would be the nerve centre of all activities including the establishment of a regional airline base. He even did not hesitate to admit that ‘we have not done much as we should for the development of the NE region.’On the perspective of the India’s ‘Look East Policy’ it is needless to assert that the NE region is going to be the fastest growing and dynamic region of the country by providing a ‘corridor’ for its economic growth and to compete with China, Japan and other parts of the world.Taking a note of these defacts and anticipating the activities that might follow the gold rush, it is not hard to imagine that a number of major players will converse to this region. This has already been indicated by the presence of a major consultancy giant like the TCS and a show of interest by one of the world’s largest IT player, the Infosys. Other foreign players like the TAC (Thai Contractors Association) – a conglomerate of 120 Thai companies, CP Aquaculture – intending to invest $10 million in aquaculture alone, some companies like Inmode Trading Company, Thai Silk Association etc, showing interest for joint ventures with their Indian counterparts, are also in the field. Considering the huge amount of fund that might be poured into, it is natural to apprehend that on the plea of lack of infrastructure and adequate skilled manpower, lack of proper conducive environment, etc, some of the centres of activities might be shifted out of this region by vested interests, as was done in the past. The alleged attempt to include the State of West Bengal in the NER map in the recent CII consortium is one such example.In this perspective the society, the governments, the think tanks of the NE region should rise to the occasion and redefine their strategies to be adopted in the immediate future. It is time to initiate a multi pronged effort with enough stress on education for inclusive growth of this region. The Government and its education planners should remodel the present curricula to create adequate number of skilled manpower in various fields including IT, tourism, agriculture and aquaculture etc to groom the youths of this region to enable them to grab the opportunities that are in store for the future. The recent joint initiatives made by the TCS and the Guwahati IIT have provided a great opportunity to the youths in IT sector, if the local youths are adequately prepared to grab it.It is needless to mention that the State is responsible for providing opportunities for education to all. Our concern for – reaching out with education to the disadvantaged population groups in dispersed locations where conventional schools are not viable, providing a choice to the learners for what they want to learn, providing a safety net to the dropouts so that they do not fade out into illiteracy, and providing education to those who cannot attend conventional schools for a variety of social and economic reasons as well as to those missed out and are now ‘over age’ – leads us to conceptualise the system of open learning.The basic focus in the open system is that, the child is empowered to learn more at his own pace and with the help of a technique of continuous self-evaluation process. The necessity to update knowledge and skills regularly, continuing education is growing in importance because of the traditional approach of getting a degree before starting one’s professional life is being progressively replaced by lifelong education. In spite of the fact that with the globalisation of trade, production, educational services and with the creation of the highly interconnected world the digital divide is widening between the urban and rural societies, between the rich and the poor and even between the advantaged and the disadvantaged nations. So it in only through continuing and lifelong education this digital gap can be narrowed down.There are some distinct advantages of open learning over learning in the formal and distant learning system. The learners in the formal system are brought to schools under conventional compulsions, whereas in open learning system they come for education on their own accord without any bindings or rigidity and experience the joy of learning through self-learning techniques. The open learners, unlike in the formal system, can pace their own progress and programme of studies without any bindings of completing a certain number of papers in certain prefixed time as per the choice/whims of the curriculum designers.Before we discuss open schooling and its advantages let us pose ourselves a question. Why open Schooling? A look into the performance of the two organisations viz SEBA and AHSEC in the last decade will show the pathetic picture of the educational scenario of the State vis-a-vis secondary and senior secondary (HS) education, the entry phases for the higher, technical and vocational education. They conduct annual examinations for the secondary and senior secondary students. The former, once even conducted two examinations per year to accommodate the learners branded as ‘repeaters’ who bear a lifetime social stigma as ‘below average’.A look into the performance of the Higher Secondary Education Council of Assam (AHSEC) in last few years – usually blamed as the performance of the students – throws light upon the colossal loss of the human resource. The highest percentage of failure in their final examination in last 10 years was 54.82 per cent (more than 60,000). The number of students failed (condemned) in each year is increasing as the number of candidates increase. The performance of SEBA is more dismal. On average 1.36 lakh students fail in each year – highest 1.52 lakh (71.06 per cent) in 1997 and 2.06 lakh (69.06 per cent) in 1994. However, the situation has improved in recent years. Failures in the final examinations do not show the entire pool of the deprived lot so far as their education is concerned. For example a large number fails even to reach the class X level each year. As per SEBA records 32.77 per cent, a whopping 85,372 were left out in 2001 in class IX alone. A large number leave the formal education system before the terminal stages for good for different reasons.The National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), a Government of India (HRD) sponsored organisation has a nationawide network for providing facilities of open schooling to the deprived and unpreached learners. However, their textbooks are in Hindi and English. This has hampered the children, especially of the rural areas, to come to the NIOS. This is one of the reasons that in Assam the English and Hindi medium students have harvested the benefits of the Open Schooling to a great extent. The State Open Schools (SOS) can easily address the shortcomings. Presently there are about 20 States that have started or in the process of starting their SOSs which include among others, Delhi, Bihar, WB, MP, AP, HP, Karnataka, Kerala, TN, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, J&K (all before 2004) etc.The policy of the National Institute of Open Schooling is of playing a pivotal role in the promotion and development of Open Schooling in the country, particularly in regional medium under the aegis of NCOS, a forum under the NIOS. The Government of Assam had also taken an initiative to start its own SOS by constituting a task force in August 2005. The members of the the Task Force prepared and submitted in the same month the Techno feasibility report and a Cabinet Memoranda showing the viability and sustainability of the project. Later a letter of commitment from NIOS for a grant of Rs 20 lakh had also been incorporated. It is up to the Government of Assam now to take advantage of these facilities for the sake of the young and old group of the society, which also should be a governmental priority. However, like nurturing a tree at the leaves, the Government has started a State open university. source: assam tribune