Leveraging Vernacular Languages to Bridge Rural Skill Gap and Enhance Workforce Participation
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Leveraging Vernacular Languages to Bridge Rural Skill Gap and Enhance Workforce Participation
India’s diverse cultures are based on numerous linguistic families, which have driven the country’s education for a long time. As per the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, over 19,500 languages and dialects are used actively in the country as the primary mode of communication, with 121 languages being limited to 10,000 or more Indians. Its report also revealed that a staggering 96.71% of Indians use one of the 22 scheduled languages as their primary mode of communication, highlighting the importance of vernacular languages in India. By integrating these same statistics into education, the picture becomes clearer; Indians are overly dependent on their mother tongues across regions, an aspect that should be a critical part of this country’s education system.
The present scenario in the Indian education domain depicts a different thought process. A special emphasis on globally dominant languages like English has become the norm in workplaces, enhancing a skill gap in rural and peri-urban areas while reducing workforce participation of prospective talents owing to little or no knowledge of it. However, GOI data reveals that a modest 12% of the Indian population is capable of conversing in English, a vast majority of whom use it as their second language. Furthermore, only 3% of rural Indians understand English, and 2% of Indians below the poverty level are capable of using it as a communication tool. Less than a third of Indian graduates are fluent in English, and all these data point towards the importance of utilizing vernacular languages to bridge the skill gap in rural areas to improve workforce participation.
The problem
The existing skill gap in rural areas is based on contemporary developments in the world. India is widely regarded as an agri-economy, and for a long time, the necessary skills to become successful in relevant trades were prevalent in rural areas. However, as India is eyeing to become a developed country by 2047 and is transforming its economy through a manufacturing and technology-based outlook, the necessity of skilled employees has increased significantly. Solutions to train the Indian youth in modern-day skills are prevalent in urban areas, unlike rural regions which constitute 68.8% of the country’s total land area and 833 million residents in the country. State-of-the-art education has increasingly become a challenge in rural areas, limiting the rural youth to pursue white-collar or skill-based jobs to advance their professional careers. However, this challenge can be overcome with some innovative strategies based on significantly prevalent vernacular languages
The solution
This is rather simple. Vernacular languages are significantly dominant in rural areas, and the same can be aligned with the educational requirements to upskill the youth. Accessibility to quality education is one of the most significant challenges in the country’s rural regions. This can be addressed by establishing new educational institutions with supportive infrastructure that is capable of imparting the latest skills through the most prevalent practices through the specific vernacular languages dominant in the region (like Tamil, Odia, Marathi etc). This promises to improve the accessibility of quality education while offering a skill-driven learning experience for students in the comfort of their mother tongues.
Furthermore, the integration of vernacular languages to offer skill-based training will directly translate to improved confidence, classroom participation by students as well as knowledge retention. This promises to teach rural students the most trending skills and help them to become successful in a professional capacity from the grassroots level.
Current implementation
Implementation of vernacular languages to train Indian youth in modern skills is far from being a new concept in India. Many schools, colleges and universities already use vernacular languages as the medium of teaching in this country, which has led to numerous success stories. A prominent example of this model can be the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) under the Skilling India Mission, which is successfully upskilling lakhs of Indian youth in relevant skills for IT and manufacturing sectors using local languages for improved comprehension and participation. In its first phase during 2015-16, 19.85 lakh youth received training. Another example of this is the National Institute of Information Technology (NIIT), which offers upskilling programs to train Indian youth in IT and business skills through vernacular languages, impacting employability margins through new job opportunities for its trainees. The Indian EdTech sector has also identified the importance of vernacular languages in upskilling and is actively offering state-of-the-art learning programs that aim to upskill Indian youth in versatile skills.
Technology is the primary driving force behind India’s rise, and bridging the rural skill gap offers to enable Indian industries to hire trained employees and improve workforce participation. This will not only generate jobs and fill hiring quotas at offices but will have a considerable effect on the country’s growth. Utilizing the power of vernacular languages in addressing the skill gap will directly translate to improved training and participation, driving the professional and personal growth of millions of Indian youth. Language has always been a communication tool, and in that aspect, it should not act as the defining factor for talent and pave the road for skill gaps. These challenges are easily addressed through support from industry leaders and policymakers and can give rise to a better India in the upcoming years.
The author is Founder and CEO of GUVI Geek Networks
