ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION

Dr Dipanjan Chakraborty

(The writer can be reached at dipanjan_999@rediffmail.com)

The greatest asset of any nation is its human resources. It is one of the most deliberate and critical determinants of growth. A country rich in physical and natural resources cannot make much headway, socially and economically, unless it has competent and enterprising people with the necessary skills, knowledge and initiative. The development of a nation is intimately related to the fullest possible development of human resources in productive activities. In a developing economy like India, the high rate of population growth is posing a serious threat to the problem of employment. The development of entrepreneurship is considered to be a panacea for harnessing vast untapped human resources. Entrepreneurship promises better employment to the youth of the country, who currently constitute the bulk of the unemployment figures. Entrepreneurship is regarded as closely associated with the economic history of India. Accordingly, the evolution of entrepreneurship in India is traced way to even as early as the Rig-Veda, where metal handicraft existed in the country. India has been the abode of enterprising people for centuries. Indians overseas, the great Indian Diaspora, have demonstrated to the world that its entrepreneurial and professional skills are next to more. Entrepreneurs are often said to be crazy people who think that they can change the world and also dare to do so. Late Dhirubhai Ambani, Narayan Murthy, Shanaz Hussain are some of the glaring examples of this spirit of entrepreneurship. These people had a vision of what they wanted to achieve, a great passion for their work and a burning desire to succeed. By dint of their hard work and strong determination, these entrepreneurs have gained worldwide reputation in their respective fields. The importance of entrepreneurship education in India can be better understood in light of the declining rate of growth of employment in the economy. Falling trade barriers, improved communications, the Internet and globalization have facilitated the creation of new ventures. Hence, while jobs are being lost, more jobs are than were there before through entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship Education means developing expertise as an entrepreneur. There prevails a controversy on what is necessary to be a successful entrepreneur. Earlier there was a notion that entrepreneurs are born not made. In other words, persons with business family background could become successful entrepreneurs. Subsequently, the sharpened knowledge of entrepreneurial competencies over the last few decades made people realize that entrepreneurs are made and not born. The advocates of this view believed that persons possessing proper knowledge and skill acquired through education and experience can become successful entrepreneurs.

Education is a potent influencing means that inculcates values, builds attitudes and most effective influencing factor that induces and motivates an individual to achieve certain predetermined objectives. Over the past two decades, there has been a controversy about how well educational systems prepare young people to take up the challenges for adult life. There is an increasing need to create awareness about entrepreneurship as a career option. Entrepreneurship has been identified as a distinct educational challenge that needs to be addressed. The shrinking job opportunities in the government, as well as the organized sector in India, have posed a serious challenge to our educational institutions to redefine their goals and priorities. The educational institutions in general and professional intuitions, in particular, have to tandem to be the change agent in transforming the Indian economy in the coming years. They will be required to create an environment for self-learning by focusing on methodologies of learning through experience, experimentation, case studies, filed report etc.

The present education system of the country has been unable to promote independent thinking, creativity, motivation and innovation among the youths. With the onset of the economic reforms in India, diverse opportunities for entrepreneurial activities are merging in traditional and non-traditional areas. The imperative today is to nurture certain entrepreneurial traits in the upcoming generation that promote social and economic development. There is thus a vital need to inculcate the spirit of enterprise into the psychology of the present generation.

In the educational context, it is the behaviours associated with entrepreneurship that are important. These behaviours are widely associated with the more general notion of an 'enterprising person'. Underpinning these behaviours are certain skills and attributes. There has been much academic debate whether the attribute can be developed in individuals or are the product of genetics. The weight of opinion supports the notion that they can be influenced considerably. Knowledge is a contextual element in developing behaviour in education.

Entrepreneurship education is to be embedded within the standard curriculum as opposed to being an "add-on" in certain classes. Entrepreneurship is becoming more important in our education system because we exist in a society that is increasingly demanding all kinds of entrepreneurial behaviour. Most of the political and policy statements concerning the need for entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial education are wrapped up in the rhetoric of international competitiveness.

At the global level, many factors combine to bring much greater opportunity but also greater uncertainty, including political realignments, reduced trade barriers, the great impact of information and communication technologies, higher rates of product and technological obsolescence, greater product differentiation, international standards for business, greater opportunities for travel a personal transfer, the growth of English language as an international medium of exchange, wider lifestyle as an international medium of exchange, wider lifestyle choices, and the impact of massive international capital flows.

At the societal level, many factors are contributing to greater complexity and uncertainty. These include the withdrawal of the boundaries of the state, public spending pressures, privatizations, deregulation, the creation of "markets" in public services, the outsourcing of social services, more business involvement in partnerships with governments and resulting new forms of governance including non-profit organizations, the growing use of business methods in all walk of life, standard-setting and benchmarking, the growing brunt of pressure groups in society, the legitimization of activities earlier thought of as deviant, the decline of religion, escalating concerns over the environment, the budding power of minority rights groups, and increasing tendency to challenge issues in courts of law.

As a reflection of everything above, the individual is faced in the work environment with greater career rewards and job uncertainty, a greater probability of part-time and contract employment, greater pressure for geographical mobility, more pressure and wider responsibility at work and more stress. If these scenarios are projected into the future, it becomes clear that there will be a greater want for all kinds of entrepreneurial behaviour. If there is to be an educational response of value; it must be sensitive to the factors identified above, as well as the pressures that this will place on the individual and organization.

To entrench entrepreneurship in the education system, it is necessary to redefine the course content, adopt new learning techniques and recruit trained teachers who possess expert knowledge in the concept. The main aim of entrepreneurship education should be to allow young people to experience and feel the concept rather than just learn about it in the conventional sense. The emphasis must be upon learning by doing; by exchange; by copying and learning from the experience; through experimentation; by risk-taking and "positive" mistake making; by creative problem solving; by feedback through social interaction; by dramatization and role-playing; by close exposure to role models; and in particular interaction with the outside/ adult world.

Currently, entrepreneurship is treated as an "add-on" to the curriculum sometimes taught by visiting business mentors. However, if we desire to take entrepreneurship education more seriously and seek to establish it as a fundamental part of the curriculum, several additional major issues need to be addressed. These include establishing clear objectives; differentiating the program to cater to students with different wants; maximizing the gateways into the curriculum; and finding appropriate methods of assessment and accreditation.

Introducing the concept of entrepreneurship to the students rests on the teachers. The entrepreneurial teacher will be an expert in the concept, knowing exactly what degree of ownership and control of learning to give to students; maximizing social education; encouraging student networking; instils motivation and builds commitment of students to perceive things through; encouraging calculated risk-taking; seeking and taking up opportunities in an innovative fashion, and teaches to convert adversity into opportunity and keep moving on. In addition, academic knowledge is necessary to develop an understanding of the business environment and also the plethora of laws, rules and regulations governing business.

We are at present passing through a big crisis. We all know that India's economy has been hit hard by the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. The recent Covid effect has shown that India's unemployment rate touched a 19-week high of 8.67% in the week ended May 9, reflecting the economy's increasing inability to generate jobs. The state of joblessness has been more acute in cities and towns – urban employment rose 164 basis points to a worrisome 11.72% in the latest week under review, compared with the previous week.

There has been a steady increase in unemployment in recent months – the relevant rate rising to a four-month high of 7.97% in April compared with 6.5% in March, 6.89% in February and 6.52% in January. About 8% of all employees migrated to agriculture, the productivity of which grew by only by 2-3%. Migration from urban areas to rural areas due to the loss of jobs in cities has also increased the burden on the agriculture sector and rural India. April 2021 indicate that a large number of people are migrating from urban to rural areas. This pandemic has resulted in huge depletion of human resources; it is having a frightful impact on the state's socio-economic front, as more and more youths are getting trapped in the vicious cycle of unemployment every passing year. If this trend continues we will be reaching into a new world where there will be more jobless people on the road. We have to think of an alternative mode of earning livelihood if we have to sustain in the coming days. We have to seek entrepreneurship as a career and which will be the new mantra for the younger generation. For this, we have to inculcate the spirit of entrepreneurship in the region and the most immediate need is to bring about a change in the attitude of the local masses. This target can be achieved only through the spread of entrepreneurship education. Efforts in this direction have already started, but still, they are in the infancy stage. The dream of an entrepreneurial society can be realized only when there exists a proper synergy between business, government and educational institutions.

To meet the challenge of the 21st century, North-east India needs entrepreneurs with a global vision who believe in change and transformation; who can take risks and chart out new growth paths. The existing government support system in India includes several entrepreneurship promotional measures such as financial incentives, financial support systems, marketing services, training etc. The State Government has its Industrial policy to promote entrepreneurship in one way the other but very little attention has been paid to creating and developing an enterprising environment.