Infosys Executive Co-Chairman Kris Gopalakrishnan has only one message for youth — think big, be ambitious. The company, which provides technology solutions for the education sector, along with other IT services, also runs a foundation for rural education. Gopalakrishnan sees technology as a facilitator for imparting high-quality education cutting across age, geography and class.

India’s growing young population is seen as a big advantage. But are we ready to reap the demographic dividend?

Clearly, there is a challenge. If you look at developed countries, youth unemployment is one of the biggest problems. As productivity increases, if you don’t find the right opportunities for employment, create jobs and invest in those opportunities, it is possible unemployment will increase. And in our case the numbers are staggering — there are about five million graduates and 20 million youth are getting added to the job market every year. That means we have to add 20 million new jobs every year. That’s where the demographic dividend can become a challenge. Do we have the capacity to create 20 million jobs every year? Are we able to skill them appropriately? Are we able to forecast what skills will be relevant and required?

So, the challenge is clear. People are aware of the challenge. What is required is concerted co-ordinated action and public-private partnership. This is not something just one section of the society can do, we all need to come together.

For the youth, entrepreneurship is very important, because I see youth becoming job creators rather than job seekers. We need to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship.

There is a problem of employability gap even among students coming out of the formal educational set-up. How can we bridge that gap effectively?

There is a gap and that gap will continue, and the reason for this is that in the 20th century we have looked at learning once and using it for the rest of our lives. You take a degree and that’s what you do the rest of your life.

In the 21st century, you need to learn to learn. So, how educational institutions help you is teach you how in a changing world you continuously learn. So, you have to continuously, every three or five years, look at re-learning, look at refreshment courses. And industry has a significant role to play in making sure its employees stay relevant. So, what the IT sector has done is that it has made education a part of the business model — starting with entry-level training. Now, we are doing “continuous education” on an ongoing basis. So, we need to figure out how every industry can look at continuous learning, re-training. This is necessary, and that is going to be the 21{+s}{+t} century model.

How is technology changing the educational space?

Our concept of how education will be imparted, the techniques, the tools that are going to be used, the pedagogies, are all changing because of technology. For example, we have this concept of massively open online courses (MOOC), which is changing the way university education is going to be imparted.

Tuitions are changing because of people such as Salman Khan of Khan Academy (an online tuition portal). So, school students can go to Khan Academy and learn about every possible subject being taught at schools and get tuitions. There are companies in India that are providing tuitions for school students in the US.

So, we will leverage technology to transform the way education is imparted. It is very exciting because you are now going to find new solutions to some of the challenges. If you are going to get high-quality, consistent education in all parts of India, including rural areas, you have to leverage technology.

So, technology will make education more secular, but are there any challenges?

Technology is a leveller. It is breaking down all barriers — of age, geography, gender, class. It is going to break down every barrier. But it is going to create new barriers, which is the digital divide. The barrier between those who have access and those who do not. Those who know how to use technology, and those who do not know how to use it. So, we need to protect ourselves from that.

>aesha.datta@thehindu.co.in

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