Observing the stagnant scenario of educated unemployed in our state everybody has the penchant to advice for “Quality education” but so far none have come up with the type of education we need at this juncture where it is the umpteen time most indicated for employment oriented education, but here too what type of employment and where, when there’s no avenue for gainful employment. That’s where the point got lost for want of objective.
Of course, good educational infrastructure comes at a cost where professional education is more expensive than general academic education but remember also that both are complementary to each other for one cannot go for technical education without the basic academic educational qualification. However sadly we’ve miserably failed to balance tech education with the academic in the first place thus the consequnce just to wake up blaming the tyre for the malfunctioning engine.
Looking through the prism of universal system of education and comparing, ours is vibrant enough with inclusion of essential subjects in term of academic education where the question of overhauling the system may not be really necessary as I observed.
No wonder, finding that we are lacking in professional sphere just to blame the system may not be appropriate here. This is because tech education and academic education are two entities of different subjects where general education is engrossed with multiple and dimensional subjects whereas tech education focuses on a particular subject, for instance Mr. X with tech educational qualification equipped with a diploma (Say welder) can be employed in a company and Mr.Y with academic graduate too can be employed in the same company as a clerical staff but here the ratio of supply against demand makes the difference because for every 50-80 workers a clerical staff may be added or even less. Thus the demand for productive technical staff is always higher in every industry but that doesn’t mean our education system is incompetent.
Just imagine presently we have thousands of technical graduates in various disciplines running from pillar to post in this virtually nil industrial state of Nagaland as those of academic graduates where their future look more bleak than ever before, then just blaming our schooling system can be simply barking down the wrong tree. More so, another wrong notion is that most of the academic graduates are shying away from enrolling themselves to the likes of ITI’s trade course thinking it to be too lowly for them which would be a great asset for them, otherwise most may become overage in the course of their hunting for clerical jobs which is hard to come by and thus the end result will be frustration, leading to social unrest.
In other words we have already achieved literacy drive with a very high percentage of literate output and this should be considered as an achievement rather than criticizing which would only be counterproductive. Our next goal should be a determination towards industrial activities with inclusive growth through holistic tech education along with the present academic systems of education.
No wonder, industry is the growth engine of national economy that generate thousands and lakhs of employment avenue providing employment to all categories of skilled and unskilled alike, thus thereby alleviating poverty that will ultimately trigger high fiscal revenue leading to high per-capita of the populace.
Invariably, it was also a long journey for India too from the nascent independent to date with continuous investment for inclusive growth and to revamp industrial asset in the country, the president of India by notification on 9th May 2007 in concord with the 1961 business allocation rules under the ministry of agro and rural industries, promulgated MSME (Micro industry, small scale industries, medium industries for entrepreneurs) for both manufacturing and servicing sectors, with specific funding patterns for this MSME as indicated hereon; For Micro sector; An investment up to 25 lakhs for manufacturing unit and up to 10 lakh rupees for servicing sector. For small scale industry an investment not less than 25 lakhs but not exceeding 5 crores rupees for manufacturing sector and not less than 10 lakh rupees but not exceeding 2 crores for servicing sector. And for Medium industry; an investment not less than 5 crore rupees but not exceeding 10 crore rupees for manufacturing and not less than 2 crore but not exceeding 5 crore rupees for servicing unit.
These allocation had been conditional to certain percentage of subsidy on fixed asset, fixed capital along with financial assistance towards working capital during incubating period (Say three years) along with soft loan for the moratorium period. (Without interest during moratorium period)
As a result now in India, there are 26.1 million industries under MSME employing 59.7 million people where production stands at 45% of the country’s output and exporting 40% to various countries from these MSME sectors. Thus, we should also emulate this growth story of the country we belong to for holistic and inclusive progress for all time to come.
Therefore, the following points may be appropriate for us to consider as to generating employment through adopting innovative policies.
1. The present school syllabus needs to incorporate with “Employability skill management” in place of Alti. English from class VIII-X that provides business ideas (Asian Published for DGE&T Labor ministry)
2. There should be more private ITIs affiliated to DGE&T (Director General of Employment and Training) financial assistances are provided including stipends once registered and affiliated with DGE&T. under labor Ministry India
3. There should be at least an engineering college complete with modern infrastructure covering all essential engineering wings.
4. The state govt. should come forward with earmarked financial supports in the form of seed money to the technically eligible candidates under “Make in India” policy in partnership with the state centre.
5. There should be a screening committee from the state level for various projects but it shouldn’t be on tribal line nor political line but purely on the merit and credibility of the entrepreneur profile that should be counted.
6. Selection of entrepreneur should be purely on the credibility of the candidate of his/her technical profile without any political interference whatsoever whether for manufacturing or servicing sector.
7. There is a window through the World Bank as per the policy of “Make in India” but condition applies from state to state and invariably the state of Nagaland needs to undertake the responsibilities and pledge to the W/B for financing under appropriate instrument.
8. Identify the balance of demand against supply, utility through proper market survey based on the entrepreneur project reports and its credibility and if found to be viable the matter be referred to the financial institution for further scrutiny and action.
9. Once a project is approved as per the project report of the individual entrepreneur and inspected, evaluated the viability, required amount, machineries may be provided but there should be constant inspection and assessment of the progress of the unit from the sanctioning authority as well as state’s observer that may be appointed from time to time to oversee the progress of the various projects sponsored by the state in partnership with centre.
10. Proposed project may be based on local demand and the feasibility of market sustainability and exporting especially agro & allied product such as food preservation, food processing and textile auxiliaries, sugar auxiliaries etc.
11. Whereas, should there be any willful defaulters mis-utilising the fund so sanctioned should be punished and his/her asset be confiscated and make to recover the whole amount without any leniency. Otherwise it has been time and again many entrepreneurs eat up the seed money under the cover of political patronage that creates bad precedents.
12. The state should facilitate windows for marketing by encouraging the use of local product and exporting the end products to various destinations.
In tune with the present hyper explosive situation of educated unemployed, instead of cursing our system of education which would be akin to wrong treatment for wrong diagnose for a simple ailment, there needs to be posthaste innovative policies through proper diagnosing and screening to overcome this malady. Yes, there is an answer for every problem provided that there’s political wills and commitment and this is what the Nagas expect from our policy makers, to be more pragmatic in their approach to unemployment problems rather than just preaching from the highest pulpit and nevertheless another election is knocking on our door, we should make it a point that our leaders notice this sensitive issue and make an issue in their manifesto for inclusive development for all round progress.
N.Haisoyi Ndang
Author & Founder Naga Script
Lower Bayavu Kohima
