What is Industry 4.0?
The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) or Industry 4.0 is here and is reshaping the world in ways that we do not yet fully comprehend and are much less prepared for. While the most dramatic and immediate impact of it is in the world of work and jobs with rippling effects in the world of policy, government and global economy, it becomes imperative that the education systems across school, higher and TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) prepare the learners of today and workers of tomorrow for this ‘brave new world’ as they did for the previous revolutions.
It is understandable that even the most dynamic of the education systems will always follow (lag) the changes in the industry as it takes time to reform the curricula, train the teachers, prepare the assessment systems etc. However, so far the education system has been able to respond and re-orient itself to serve the demands of the economy and society. In many ways the basic structure of the education system has not changed fundamentally despite technology and demands of industry facilitating ‘anywhere, anytime learning’, but that might be set to change with the learner at the core as opposed to facilitators (human teachers, computers, robots), the frameworks (curriculum, content) or institutions facilitating education (schools, universities).
The potential impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) could be a game changer for millions, considering the impact of the previous industrial revolutions on the development of mankind.
- The first industrial revolution at the end of the 18th century marked a transition from hand production to machine-led production, enabled by steam engines, water power etc., which revolutionised textiles, shipping, iron, mining and agriculture industries. The impact of this went far beyond just economic growth; the rise of capitalism and the growing need to find ‘fertile grounds and raw materials’ for the industries coincided with the rise of imperialism and enabled a handful of nations to dominate and colonise the rest of the world.
- The use of electricity enabled mass production, assembly lines based on division of labour and the use of railroads and telegraph starting in the early 20th century, marked the second industrial revolution. While many nations and organisations (corporations) benefited from this and became production and manufacturing hubs across different industries such as iron, automobiles, mining, gas & petroleum; the two world wars and subsequent cold war remain as sharp reminders of the unchecked and uncontrolled leverage of the power of this revolution.
- The third industrial revolution starting in the late 1980s-1990s, was the use of advanced electronics, IT, communication which allowed for further automation of production processes and a far more connected world than ever as we entered the 21st century. Liberalisation and Globalisation of markets and economies aided by reforms in global trade and rising consumerism are some of the benefits of the 3rd industrial revolution we reap even today.
- The fourth industrial revolution is characterised by the use of Internet of Things (IoT), additive manufacturing – 3D printing, cloud computing, Big Data Analytics, Artificial intelligence, advanced/automated robotics and Augmented Reality (AR), among others. These info-technology innovations, combined with rapid advancements in biotechnology such as bio-sensors, wearable devices, AI-robot doctors and nano-medicines create unimaginable possibilities for the future.
All of these revolutions were possible due to the immense benefits that machines have over human beings in terms of greater physical capabilities, increased speed and power, greater accuracy and control. The third industrial revolution was particularly important to interconnectivity of the machines and computers working together as a system. The fourth revolution is different in ways that it competes and holds the potential to dominate human beings even in cognitive and emotive capabilities, hitherto considered the impregnable fort of humans. Humans retained the definitive edge when it came to understanding multiple dimensions/data, applying judgment and taking decisions. This domination is already being challenged by the realization that ‘judgment’ and ‘gut feeling’ of managers and leaders are nothing but pattern recognition based on data and feelings and emotions are nothing but biochemical reactions in the human body.
How do we Prepare our Students for Industry 4.0?
Each industrial revolution has raised fears of job loss, yet historically, new jobs emerge alongside automation. However, with Industry 4.0, unskilled and semi-skilled workers face greater risks, as re-skilling for tech-intensive roles like programming driverless cars is far more challenging than past shifts, such as moving from farm work to retail. These concerns reflect fears that benefits from this revolution may once again deepen existing inequalities.
The challenge that besets Education 4.0 is then, how does one prepare the youth and graduates of today for jobs and what knowledge and skills to impart to children who are entering schools today for a world of work which we not only do not understand fully but can never predict with certainty?
The basic model of education remained unchanged since the first industrial revolution and almost mimics the assembly line of production with standardised curriculum, broadly standard age-years structure, standardised assessments and degrees/certifications producing a large number of students with a certain amount of knowledge, skills and mindsets. This will need to change.
Schools and teachers have so far considered their primary job to impart more and more information on a variety of topics to learners as they progress through grades. Learners today have access to all the information not only in their textbooks but also supplementary materials of the world through the internet. It is often free of cost and also comes with an option of an online educator to teach those courses. There is, in fact, too much information around us with equal amounts of post-truth, fake news and propaganda.
The best guidance the teachers of tomorrow can give to the learners is to help them make sense of all this information, understand what is important and useful and what is not. Increasingly, we see industry taking upon itself the need to create job-ready learners and learners also taking initiatives to reduce the lag between the needs of the industry in terms of skill-sets and competencies and what is offered in the universities. Students are enroling in online courses offered by any institution, university or industry body from anywhere in the world for a variety of durations, depending on their need and ability; they assess themselves on these courses and get a certificate with a score. However, we must know that in future, the learners might need to do this over and over again. Industry 4.0 and further will make a large number of job families and skills for them obsolete at an increasing pace and learners cannot rely on specific sets of skills and knowledge to serve them beyond a few years.
What would be critical then is for learners to be able to learn new skills and acquire knowledge at a faster pace, affordably and of the quality desired by the industry they want to work for.
Source: User Generated Education on WordPress
This cannot be achieved with teachers and experts who continue to live and function in the 21st century with experiences of the education and work systems of the past i.e. 19th and 20th century. They need to unlearn, learn and relearn continuously and help their learners to develop the ability to learn all the time.
If the learners and teachers fail to do so, AIs and robots will most certainly take over and play that role. AI will likely write better programming codes than humans, Big Data analytics will help translate complex pieces of data and information from multiple sources into meaningful insights, advanced software may help us translate and communicate in as many languages as we want simultaneously; the possibilities are endless.
Mastering the Demands of Tomorrow with Critical 21st Century Skills
Pedagogy experts are increasingly talking about the 4Cs – critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication, as critical 21st century skills. While one can argue that these skills were helpful even in the previous centuries, these general purpose life skills seem like a good bet in an increasingly VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) world. At the basic level, mastery of gateway, foundation skills of 3R (reading, writing and arithmetic) would need to be ensured for all children.
Especially at the primary grades, the foundational skills of literacy, numeracy are essential predictors of future learning and chances at gainful and sustainable employment.
India has a progressive education policy for the 21st century, National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which aims to re-orient the education system starting from the foundational stages to preparatory, middle and secondary in school education and further technical, vocational and higher education to prepare learners with knowledge and skills adopting multi-disciplinary and integrated learning approaches. Hence, it is important that school education systems do not consider 21st century skills as something ‘additional’ to core curriculum and something to be either complied with or ‘good to have’ to attract parents. Rather, they should integrate the useful dimensions of critical thinking, collaboration, communication and creativity into all aspects of education.
The National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding (NIPUN Bharat) Mission has articulated developmental goals for children in terms of them having good health and well-being, becoming effective communicators and becoming involved learners and connecting with their environment. This required sharper focus on gateway skills of language so that language does not become a stumbling block in later stages for the children to ‘read and learn’. Basic skills of mathematics such as number operations and measurement are critical even if the person chooses to take vocational education.
Socio-emotional learning of children is as important as no learning can happen in an internal (child’s own) and external (school and home) environment that is not conducive to learning, i.e., where the child does not develop the ability to make decisions and develop agency.
Play-based learning and toy-based pedagogy is also proposed towards making the process of learning enjoyable and fun, as in the 21st century learning will be lifelong! Until children look forward to engaging in the process of learning on their own, chose their own trajectories and pathways, learning will always look like a burden and a compulsion forced upon them by the ever-changing world of work.
