Hyderabad: India produces millions of graduates each year, but the country continues to tackle the employment potential crisis. Experts warn that the majority of degree holders remain unemployed, revealing a severe cut between what the university offers and what the job market actually demands.At a national conference on “India @2047 – The Role of Higher Education,” academics and policymakers on Friday highlighted that artificial intelligence (AI) can help fill this gap. “AI is one of the biggest destroyers of our time, and the key question is: How do you prepare your students for a world dominated by AI?” said Sekar Viswanathan, Vice President of Velour Institute of Technology. He highlighted two important issues. Teacher preparation and institutional adoption.Viswanathan added that AI can also help redesign pedagogy itself. “The classrooms today are no longer uniform. AI can enable personalized learning and help teachers cater to different learning levels within the same class. AI can be used to develop unique teaching modules that remain reflective of today's world.”But he noted that there are deeper issues beyond technology. “The average student checks his phone every two minutes. But we still expect to sit in a 50-minute lecture. If we don't rethink education, we risk becoming dinosaurs and becoming obsolete and irrelevant,” he explained.However, this task is not limited to pedagogy. Jayaram, chairman of the Indian Education Promotion Association (EPSI), said, “Nearly 70% of India's higher education institutions are run privately. Around 140,000 students graduate each year, but there is only a safe placement of 1.4 lakhs. That means 90% of our youth are unemployed. ”Jayaram noted that India currently has 26 school students and 5 trillion kroules already in higher education, with millions of people quickly entering the system. “At many engineering colleges, the student-teacher ratio is 1:30, but the ideal is 1:15. They need more teachers, as well as trained teachers.
