A well educated mind vs a well formed mind: Dr. Shashi Tharoor at TEDxGateway 2013

Summary

The speaker discusses India's youthful demographic as a potential asset for economic transformation, emphasizing the importance of education in harnessing this potential. With a significant portion of the population under 25, India has the opportunity to lead in the global workforce. However, challenges remain in education quality, equity, and employability. The speaker calls for expansion, inclusion, excellence, and a focus on employability to prevent a demographic dividend from becoming a disaster, highlighting the need for innovative thinking and vocational training to equip India's youth for the future.

Takeaways

• 🌏 India has a significantly young population, with 65% under 35 and half under 25, which is a demographic advantage compared to an aging global population.
• 📚 The average age in India is projected to be 29 by 2020, which positions India to potentially play a role similar to what China did in the last generation, with a youthful and dynamic workforce.
• 📉 The demographic dividend in India could turn into a demographic disaster if the large young population is not educated and trained properly, leading to unemployment and social unrest.
• 🏫 Expansion in education has been significant, increasing literacy from 16% to 74% and growing the number of universities and colleges, but challenges in quality and employability remain.
• 🔄 Equity in education is a priority, addressing the historical exclusion of certain groups such as women, who had a literacy rate of only 8.9% at the time of India's independence.
• 🏛️ Excellence in education is a challenge, with institutions like the IITs being islands of quality in a sea of mediocrity, and the need for more focus on quality across all educational institutions.
• 💼 Employability is a concern, with employers expressing dissatisfaction with the quality of graduates, indicating a gap between education and industry needs.
• 📈 The government is taking steps to improve education, including the Right to Education Act and financial support for underfunded state universities.
• 🛠️ Vocational training is being emphasized to prepare a segment of the population for trades that are in demand and to address the cultural resistance to non-academic professions.
• 💡 Innovation and research are crucial for India's future, and there is a need to encourage out-of-the-box thinking and original creativity in the educational system.
• 👓 A personal anecdote about re-imagining everyday objects, like glasses, as a metaphor for the need to rethink and innovate in education to better prepare India's youth for the future.

Q & A

What is the demographic significance of India's population being predominantly under 35?

India's predominantly young population signifies a potential demographic dividend, offering a youthful, productive, and dynamic workforce that could transform the world, similar to the role China played in the last generation.

What is the average age of the Indian population, and how does it compare with other countries by 2020?

The average age in India is 28, which is significantly lower than other countries such as Japan (47), China (over 40), Europe (46), and the United States (40), indicating a younger population ready for work.

What is the projected number of Indians entering the workforce by 2020 according to the International Labor Organization?

The International Labor Organization projects that by 2020, India will have 160 million people in the age group of starting work, which is significantly higher than China's 94 million.

How does the speaker describe the potential consequences if India fails to educate and train its young population?

If India fails to educate and train its young population, the demographic dividend could turn into a demographic disaster, with unemployed and undereducated youth potentially becoming susceptible to negative influences such as Maoists.

What were the literacy rates in India at the time of independence and today?

At the time of independence in 1947, the literacy rate in India was 16%. Today, it has improved to 74%.

What is the current situation regarding gender equity in education in India?

While there has been progress, with the current female literacy rate at 66%, there is still a significant gender gap, as one out of every three Indian women is still illiterate.

What is the speaker's view on the quality of education in Indian higher education institutions?

The speaker believes that while there are institutions of great quality like the IITs and IIMs, the average Indian higher education institution is not of the desired quality, with many being described as 'islands of excellence floating on a sea of mediocrity'.

What is the speaker's perspective on the employability of Indian graduates?

The speaker indicates that employers and CEOs are generally not satisfied with the quality of graduates they receive, with a significant percentage of employers requiring additional re-education for their newly hired employees.

What is the Right to Education Act's impact on children's education in India?

The Right to Education Act has made education a state responsibility, ensuring that if children are out of school, it is considered the state's fault rather than the parents', reflecting a commitment to getting all children an education.

What is the current gross enrollment ratio at the primary school level in India, and what does it signify?

The current gross enrollment ratio at the primary school level in India is 116%, which means more children are enrolled than initially estimated for that age group, indicating some older children are also joining the system.

What is the speaker's suggestion for improving research and innovation in India?

The speaker suggests that India needs to foster new ways of thinking, encouraging out-of-the-box ideas and original thinking in the classroom, to improve research and innovation, and to better utilize the country's intellectual potential.

Outlines

00:00

🌏 India's Demographic Advantage and Education Challenges

The speaker begins by highlighting India's young population, with 65% under 35 and half under 25, positioning India as a country with a significant demographic advantage. The average age is 28, contrasting with aging populations in Japan, China, Europe, and the US. This youthful population is seen as a potential workforce that could transform the world. However, the speaker emphasizes the importance of education in harnessing this demographic dividend, noting the risk of it becoming a demographic disaster if the youth are not properly educated and employed. The speaker also points out the need for India to expand its education system, improve equity, and focus on excellence and employability to avoid social and economic issues and even national security threats.

05:02

🎓 The State of Indian Higher Education and the Quest for Excellence

The second paragraph delves into the state of higher education in India, acknowledging the progress made in expanding access with increased literacy rates and the growth of universities and colleges. However, the speaker points out that while India has institutions of excellence like the IITs and IIMs, the average higher education institution is not of the desired quality. Employers are dissatisfied with the quality of graduates, leading to companies establishing re-education facilities. The speaker calls for a focus on employability and the need for early education, addressing gender gaps, and improving adult literacy. The government's initiatives to finance state universities and promote vocational training are mentioned, along with the cultural challenges in adopting vocational education.

10:02

💡 Fostering Innovation and Overcoming Educational Barriers

In the final paragraph, the speaker discusses the importance of research and innovation, noting the government's intention to increase research funding. The speaker encourages new ways of thinking, citing India's history of 'jugaad' or frugal innovation, and the need to create original ideas rather than just improving existing ones. The speaker stresses the importance of a well-formed mind over a well-filled mind in the digital age, advocating for education that fosters original thinking and adaptability. A personal anecdote about reimagining glasses to solve a common problem illustrates the concept of out-of-the-box thinking. The speaker concludes with optimism about India's literacy rate and the potential of its workforce, given the right educational framework.

Keywords

💡Demography

Demography refers to the statistical study of populations, including their size, composition, distribution, and changes due to births, deaths, and migration. In the context of the video, demography is highlighted as a defining characteristic of India, with a large portion of the population being young, which presents both challenges and opportunities for the country's future development and economic growth.

💡Higher Education

Higher education encompasses academic activities and programs at colleges and universities, which are beyond secondary education. The script discusses the importance of higher education in India, particularly in preparing the young population for the workforce and ensuring that they are equipped with the necessary skills to contribute to the nation's economy.

💡Demographic Dividend

A demographic dividend refers to the economic growth potential that can result from shifts in a population's age structure, mainly when the share of the working-age population is large compared to the non-working-age population. The video emphasizes India's potential to harness this dividend through its youthful population, provided that they are educated and employed effectively.

💡Equity

Equity in education means ensuring that all individuals have fair and just access to learning opportunities, regardless of their gender, caste, region, or religion. The script mentions the efforts to include the excluded and reach out to those who have been traditionally marginalized in the Indian education system.

💡Literacy Rate

The literacy rate is the percentage of a population able to read and write. The video script provides historical context by mentioning India's literacy rate at the time of independence and the progress made since then, highlighting the importance of literacy as a foundation for further education and social empowerment.

💡Expansion

In the context of the video, expansion refers to the growth and development of the education system, including increasing the number of universities, colleges, and students in higher education. The speaker discusses the significant expansion that has taken place in India's education sector since independence to accommodate the growing demand for education.

💡Excellence

Excellence, in the script, pertains to the pursuit of high-quality education and institutions that can compete on a global scale. The speaker contrasts the 'islands of excellence' like the IITs and IIMs with the broader higher education system, which is described as being of mediocre quality on average.

💡Employability

Employability refers to the qualities and characteristics, including skills, knowledge, and experience, that make an individual suitable for employment. The video discusses the gap between the employability of Indian graduates and the expectations of employers, indicating a need for better alignment between education and industry requirements.

💡Vocational Training

Vocational training is education that prepares individuals for specific trades, crafts, or careers. The script mentions the need for vocational training in India to equip individuals with practical skills that are in demand in the job market, and the cultural shift required to value such skills.

💡Research and Innovation

Research and innovation are critical for driving new ideas, products, and solutions that can contribute to economic growth and societal advancement. The video calls for a doubling of research spending and a cultural shift towards out-of-the-box thinking and creativity to foster innovation in India.

💡Jugaad

Jugaad is a Hindi term that refers to an innovative fix or a creative solution developed from limited resources. The script mentions 'jugaad' as a form of frugal innovation that is characteristic of India, but also emphasizes the need for more original and groundbreaking innovations beyond just making existing things more affordable.

Highlights

65% of India's population is under 35, making it an incredibly young country.

Half of India's population is under 25, with 226 million Indians aged 10-19 ready to enter higher education.

India's average age is 28, significantly lower than other major economies like the US, Europe, China, and Japan.

By 2020, India is projected to have 160 million people entering the workforce, outpacing China.

India has a demographic advantage but needs to equip its people to take advantage of this through education and training.

Education in India is not just a social or economic issue but also a national security issue.

India has made significant progress in education expansion, increasing literacy rates and the number of universities and colleges.

Equity in education is a challenge, with gender, caste, region, and religion affecting access to quality education.

Excellence in education is a concern, with institutions like IITs being islands of quality in a sea of mediocrity.

Employers are not satisfied with the quality of graduates, indicating a gap in employability skills.

The government is taking steps to improve education, including funding state universities and focusing on research and innovation.

Vocational training is being integrated into the education system to address the skills gap in trades like masonry and plumbing.

India needs to foster a culture of innovation and out-of-the-box thinking to compete globally.

The education system should focus on developing well-formed minds capable of original thinking and problem-solving.

India has the potential to lead in the next generation with its youthful population if it can effectively harness its demographic dividend.

95% of India's 12-year-olds can read and write, indicating a positive foundation for the country's future workforce.

Transcripts

Transcriber: Riaki Poništ Reviewer: Denise RQ

I'm here to talk to you about Indian education,

higher education in particular.

But I'm actually going to start with demography.

How many of you here are under 35?

OK, that seems pretty representative of the country;

65% of India is under 35.

How many of you are under 25?

Then you are not representing

because half of the Indian population is pretty much under 25.

We are an amazingly young country.

In fact, if you just take the age group from 10 to 19,

there are 226 million Indians, poised, in other words, to enter

higher education, going through school and ready for higher education.

This is amazing

because it's happening at the time when the rest of the world is aging.

If you look at the average age in India today, it's 28.

Of course, don't ask about the gap - since we heard about gaps -

between the average age of the Indian person

and of the Indian cabinet.

I think we hold the world record for that.

But, that's another TED talk, right?

But what you've got with the average ages

at a time when the rest of the world is changing,

is that by 2020, the average age in Japan is going to be 47,

in China it's going to be heading well past 40,

Europe, 46, the United States, beautiful US, also 40,

and India's average age is going to be 29.

So we are potentially the people

who are youthful, productive, dynamic, young population,

ready to work, and transform the world, the kinds of role that, say,

China played in the last generation could be ours in the next.

In fact, International Labor Organization has worked out that by 2020,

we'll have 160 million people in the age group of starting work,

- 20 to 24 is what they calculate -

and China will only have 94 million, at the same time.

So we really are poised to do that.

But, and by the way, other countries will have a serious deficit

that's estimated that the US will have 17 million short

in terms of how many people they need of working age.

We, in India, have the people.

But do we have the ability to equip the people to take advantage of this,

to be the workforce of the work engine for the world?

See, if we get it right, we educate and train them, we really transform

not just our own economy and our society, but the world.

If we get it wrong, the demographic dividend

that I'm talking about becomes a demographic disaster.

Because, we've already seen in 165 of our 625 districts

what happens when unemployed, frustrated, undereducated young man

become prey to the blandishments of the Maoists

and prey to the gun and the bullet.

So education in our country is not just a social or economic issue,

it's even a national security issue.

We've got equip our people

to take advantage of what the 21st century offers them.

This is the story in a nutshell:

4 E's, Expansion with our first priority in education.

Why? Because the British

- and I wouldn't even ask if any of you are here -

left us in 1947, with a 16% literacy rate.

there were only 400,000 four-lakh students in the entire country in higher education.

We had 26 universities, fewer than 700 colleges.

So obviously, expansion was essential;

we've gone right from that 16% to 74% literacy today,

we've gone from 26 universities to 650 universities,

we've gone from those 400,000 students, four-lakh students,

to 20 million students in higher education today,

and we have 35,000 colleges as well, instead of 700 colleges we had then.

So expansion has taken place.

We've also had to fight for the second E of Equity.

That is, including the excluded from the education,

trying to reach out to the unreached,

the people who didn't get a fair shake in education

for reasons they couldn't help: gender, an obvious reason.

When we had had that 16% literacy rate,

do you know what the female literacy rate was?

8.9% at the time of the independence.

Just one out of 11 Indian women could read and write.

Caste, region, religion, all sorts people got left out of system.

We had to bring them in.

And that became a big challenge and a priority for education.

In getting those two things more or less right,

I don't know how well we did on the third E,

which is the E of Excellence.

Obviously, you need quality.

And we set about setting up institutions of great quality in our country.

The IITs are a good example, in fact, it's part of Jawaharlal Nehru's vision

that IIT in Kharagpur was established in 1956, the year I was born,

and it was done on the site of a British detention center,

the Hijili detention center.

So a symbol of political oppression became instead a symbol of hope,

of technology, of looking to the future.

But, for the IITs, the IIMs, a few good institutions,

I'm sure you could all pick your few around the country,

these have tended to be islands of excellence

floating on the sea of mediocrity.

The average Indian higher education institution is simply not of the quality

that you and I, all of us, in this audience would like to see.

And that ties into the fourth E I've added to this catechism: Employability.

Talk to employers, talk to CEOs, what would they tell you?

That they're simply not satisfied

with the quality of the graduates they're getting.

Even in the T of TED, the technological area,

engineering graduates, half a million engineering graduates a year,

but if you talk to the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry,

they did a survey and 64% of employers are not satisfied

with the quality of graduates they're getting.

Some companies are running, essentially, re-education places,

like the gigantic campus in Mysore.

And it's not on the job training which big companies tend to do,

it is, in fact, a full-year's education for the people they've already hired,

to make up for the deficiencies

of what they've learned or not properly learned in the college.

Now, that's the scale of the challenge that we face.

What are we doing about it? A great deal needs to be done.

Of course, we are trying to put in kids into the system at an early age,

the RTE, the Right to Education Act,

if kids were out of school in the old days,

it was their parents' fault;

today, if there are out of school it's a state's fault.

The government is committed to actually getting them an education.

We've got more and more money

being pumped in by the system at all levels.

For example, many of you may have gone to prestigious universities;

lots of people in India don't.

They go to state universities which are grossly under-financed.

We've come up with a scheme to pump central money into the state universities,

so they actually have the resources to do something

with the students they have there.

Money isn't the whole answer.

There is an entire challenge, in terms of addressing things

like the gender gap - that's a gap, but despite what mister...

or what an earlier speaker said, we don't want to embrace, right? -

that we must, must overcome.

Right now, women's literacy is 66%, better than the 8.9, but it still means

that, you know, one out of every 3 Indian women still can't read and write.

We have to overcome that.

And we need to catch the ones who've been left out of the net:

adult literacy; huge challenge.

I went off to a village in Tamil Nadu, not far from Khan Jibran,

but I've met women, who in their 50s and 60s,

were learning to read and write.

And people think sometimes what's the point,

some of their own family members, their husbands, think what's the point.

The answer is it changes their lives, it empowers them in real ways.

I spoke to a woman called Chitra Mani,

who proudly wrote her name in Tamil on a piece of paper.

I said: "So, what does being able to read and write mean to you?"

And she said: "Now I can see the destination of a bus,

where it's going;

I don't need to ask somebody where that bus is going.

I know where I can go.

When I get to the big city of Gandhi Puram,

I can read the street signs, I can find where I need to go,

I don't feel helpless anymore."

That kind of empowerment is what literacy gives people

in a very fundamental and real way.

And we're trying to do that of course, for those who've dropped out early on,

in the days before we got to that 74%.

Younger kids, we've got them into school now.

We've something called a gross enrollment ratio,

the percentage of children of a certain age,

of the appropriate one for a particular level of education.

But at our primary school now, our gross enrollment ratio is 116%.

We've actually enrolled more kids than we thought existed at that age group,

because some of the older ones are coming in too.

Bad news is, as you go up the level, it starts dropping,

So by the 8th grade, I'm afraid it's down to 69%,

by the 10th grade, 39%,

and by college, our gross enrollment ratio is about 18%,

against the global average of 29%.

So, clearly, we still need to do more. Our expansion hasn't gone enough.

We haven't managed to get everyone to stay in the system.

Some of them actually need vocational training.

They're not all going to become white collar clerks,

or officials, or IAS officers, right?

We need to try and catch them, and get them into vocational training.

But how do you do that in the culture where, for 3,000 years,

if you wanted to become a cobbler or a carpenter,

you'd better have an uncle or father who's a cobbler or a carpenter,

because nobody else is going to teach you.

The transmission of knowledge, of trade craft in our country,

has always been through the gene pool,

the reason why the sons of politicians tend to be politicians also, you know.

And with the Bollywood movies stars, same story. (Laughter)

So we need to get master craftsmen.

Why is it with a country of 1.2 billion that we should have a nationwide shortage

of masons, of plumbers, of certified electricians?

We need to get more vocational training into the system,

we're doing that, we're now rolling out the whole concept of community colleges

so that kids can go in, have some academic learning,

lots of vocational training,

and at the end of 2 years, if they show tremendous academic promise

they can go back to a university, if not,

they leave with a 2-year certificate, and they go off and do a useful trade

in a society that is clamoring for these skills.

So these are the kinds of changes

that we're trying to bring about, and move along.

But there's a change that the government alone can't do.

You know, if you look at the need for research and innovation,

- you've heard a lot of that, I'm sure in the course of the TED talks -

research is something which...

The government wants to double the amount of money

they are spending on research for 1% of GDP to 2%;

we haven't had the money to pump into it yet,

but, innovation requires new ways of thinking.

I heard you had a talk about hyper-thinking; I've missed it.

But new ways of thinking means learning to think out of the box,

learning to create, I know we're famous for ”jugaad”, right?

If you Google the word 'frugal innovation, '

and top 20 hits will all relate to Indian inventions.

We invented the world's cheapest electrocardiogram,

the simplest and cheapest EKG, the cheapest insulin injection,

the world's cheapest small car, the TATA Nano,

but all these've been things invented elsewhere

that we have stripped down, made more affordable, more replicable,

more relevant to our conditions.

We need to do things that others haven't done before,

which we used to do in our culture where Nalanda invented the zero.

Remember how the Romans used to write their numerals in long strings of letters,

till an Indian thought of the idea of zero emerging from the notion of "śūnyatā"

in Hindu and Buddhist thinking?

That came into the zero "śūnya" which transformed global mathematics.

We need to think like that again; we need to come up with ideas.

With 17% of the world's brains, why do we only have 2.8%

of the world's research output coming out of our country?

Well, perhaps we need to start in the classroom.

Get our kids, not just to have their heads filled full of facts,

and textbook materials, and teachers' lectures.

Because frankly, that gives you a well-filled mind,

but in the era of the Internet, you don't need a well-filled mind,

you've got Google, right?

Find everything you want with 2 clicks of the mouse.

What you need is a well-formed mind.

A mind that reacts to unfamiliar facts and details

that can actually synthesize information that it hasn't studied before.

A mind, in other words, that can react to the bigger examination called 'life, '

which doesn't actually only give you the things you're prepared for.

And for that you need a mind that's shaped by original thinking,

a mind that doesn't just ask the teacher, "Why?", but "Why not?"

I've actually had a little experience of out of the box thinking myself.

I wear glasses, I don't need them to read or to see you folks on the front,

but if I want to catch somebody in the back row,

there I have to look though glasses.

But because I hardly ever wear them, I keep losing or breaking them.

I shove them in the pocket, bang them against the wall or something,

they crack, I put them on the lap, when I get up, they fall down,

somebody steps on them, they break.

In the first 3 months of this year, I lost or broke 6 pairs of glasses.

So I was telling a friend about this,

and he said: "A simple solution, why can't you think of one?"

I said: "Look, there is no easy solution

because for 150 years, glasses have been made in one way, right?

They join together at the center, then hang over your ears.

That's what I've found an inconvenience, so I take them off."

And he said, "No, no, no, no, no, you will find a different way.

You can re-imagine glasses in a way they're not going to hang over your ears,

or join at the middle," and this is what he did.

I'm wearing them right now; and if I want to see anybody at the back,

I just pull them together,

it has two magnets in the middle that click together,

and I can see you all at the back. (Applause)

Now, it's just a silly example perhaps,

but it's an example of how one can think out of the box.

Things, familiar objects can be thought of

in ways they haven't been thought of before.

And that way, we can move forward in the world.

I have no doubt that the challenges are enormous,

there is simply no question that here, in our country,

we have to become literate.

But there's one piece of good news.

95% of our 12 year-olds across India can read and write.

So the future looks good.

And as far as the workforce is concerned,

if we can get all these other pieces in place,

we can say to the rest of the world, "We are coming."

Thank you very much.

(Applause)