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How RI could learn from India’s STEM education
Collaborative learning: Students visit a job fair at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in New Delhi, India
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ollaborative learning: Students visit a job fair at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in New Delhi, India. The country takes a practical, hands-on approach to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education, equipping students with concrete industrial skills straight from the field. (Courtesy of Indian Institute of Technology Delhi)
Many Indian talents now lead prominent global tech companies around the world, including Sundar Pichai (for Google), Shantanu Narayen (for Adobe) and Satya Nadella (for Microsoft).
The Invest India National Investment Promotion and Facilitation Agency’s information technology (IT) sector page also promotes the country’s digital industry as a promising sector, with more than 17,000 digital start-up firms, absorbing about 3.9 million people into the workforce, out of the total workforce of, according to a 2015 World Bank report, 503.8 million.
If we look at Indonesia, the absorption of the workforce into the digital economy pales in comparison to that in India. According to an article on cnbcindonesia.com, the local digital economy was able to absorb only 600,000 employees per annum as of December 2018.
Indonesia, nonetheless, is on its way to becoming an emerging digital technology hub, with a series of foreign direct investments made in the sector, including the Japanese company SoftBank’s US$2 billion over the next five years to upgrade local infrastructure through Singaporean transportation, food delivery and digital payments firm Grab.
Indonesia’s digital transactions have also gained traction, with the value of digital transactions quadrupling to Rp 47 trillion in 2018 according to Bank Indonesia.
Many analyses of Indonesia’s digital economy have mentioned a lack of skilled human resources as one challenge that hinders the country’s digital economy.
Strong science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education, starting right from the primary years, is one of the reasons for India’s digital economy progress. In this case, Indonesia might benefit by learning some best practices from India’s STEM education system in order to boost its local IT scene.
Education expert Amol Titus, who founded Best of India Knowledge, Information Technology and Engineering (better known as Best of India KNITE), for example, has created collaborative programs with universities to provide students real-life industrial cases as part of the learning process.
This strong academia-industry link is one of the strong points of India’s STEM education, according to Titus.
“Specifically, in the area of information technology, the Indian education curriculum closely aligns with the industry’s latest developments in the field,” says Titus, a senior business strategic adviser who often writes articles on educational issues as well.
According to Nomesh Boliam a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi’s Mechanical Engineering Department, for instance, IIT always updates its curriculum every two years, based on advancements in artificial intelligence and many other things.
“We have a strong network with industry professionals around the world, thus we also have a strong entrepreneurial and start-up culture,” Bolia said during a recent visit to Jakarta.
Titus says Indian universities also place students on internship programs and case study assignments that require them to work in companies.
“They will be required to learn not just the theories but also their applications by, for instance, developing or using the right software to solve different problems in the workplace — say which one to use to integrate the back office with the front office in workflow management,” he illustrates.
To help Indonesians and other Southeast Asians learn more from India’s best educational practices, IIT — which has 23 campuses across India — is currently offering 1,000 doctoral degree scholarships for Southeast Asians.
Through the scholarships, open for academics and industry practitioners alike, applicants will be able to pursue any disciplines they want, whether in IT and engineering or in subjects that intersect with these disciplines, such as management and social sciences.
The Indian government is providing a total of $300 million for the project, which will be implemented in six batches over three years. Nine Indonesian students were accepted in the first round of applications last year. The second round is currently open until March.
The first and second batches will start their classes in July.
Practitioners can also benefit from these doctoral degree programs, according to Titus.
“PhD courses will help you delve deeper into very specialized areas, so that you can identify through which particular areas of the digital economy you can contribute to the advancements of Indonesian society,” Titus says.
The program, according to Bolia, allows PhD candidates to attend some classes while writing their dissertations, aligning their studies with the current industrial situations as well.
“By studying in a PhD program at IIT you can also benefit by networking with our international students, who come from Asian countries but also from Germany; this international network may help your career later,” he says.
