In India we often have a lot of discussions on our lack of English knowledge. It might come as a surprise to many but India is right up there in terms of the number of people who can speak English. Beating UK and Australia hands down and offering stiff competition to the US, India has to offer a huge English-speaking populace. However, this section is only 4 percent of India’s total population and basically the urban cluster and as of now, this is the cluster the industry has to depend upon for filling up its many vacancies.
Almost all the jobs on offer in the private sector require a good knowledge of English. Being more exposed to the requirements and facilities, city-dwellers are in a better position to occupy vacancies in the Industry. The rural youth, on the contrary, focus more on the public sector as proficiency in English is not vital. According to an article on rediff.com, rural youth would rather take up positions of peons and security guards in the state’s payroll than try for jobs in the private sector which require English. According to the article, the north-eastern states have a different story to tell thanks to their Baptist schools whereas the rest of rural India would rather shy away from the private sector with its imposing demand that candidates be fluent in English.
When we are not providing the rural youth adequate exposure and training, we cannot really blame them for their apprehension of city life and the private sector. We need to urgently realize that a significant change in the education system might just raise the percentage of English speakers in India from 4% to 40%.
Tags: competition, education, English, English-speaking, exposed, fluent, industry, knowledge, lack, payroll, private, proficiency, public, rural, schools, sector, speak, system, training, urban, vacancies
Category: Education System