Our Curriculums Need to Favor Entrepreneurship

From the Mellons to the Gates and Bezoses to Musks, the US has been home to many entrepreneurs admired worldwide the elite class. Even today, the US has been recognized as the world’s most entrepreneurial country. Something that the greatest entrepreneurs in history have proven time and again is that a college degree is never the most important aspect of becoming a successful entrepreneur. Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg have been the poster boys of this. But most students don’t get over the societal pressure to leave their education aside and venture out with their business idea. However, don’t get the idea that education is

unimportant. While the names mentioned above represent a tiny substratum of highly successful entrepreneurs, the large majority of successful entrepreneurs in the world right now boast stellar academic qualifications. It’s just that grooming should commence from the schooldays.

There is no doubt that India needs to drastically transform its entrepreneurial landscape to stay true to its futuristic ambitions, and we need to start from our schools. Lately, India has been making great strides in the department. India is currently home to 108 unicorns with a total valuation of close to $350 billion. But for a country that just overtook China to become the most populated country in the world and aims to become a $5 trillion economy in the near future, we can’t take pressure off the gas. There is a dire need to produce global citizens, entrepreneurs with broader visions, and candidates with skills beyond expectations. Let’s look at some simple statistics. Around fifteen lakh engineering students graduate in India from engineering colleges across the country. Only 2.5 lakh of them get relevant jobs in technical domains. Even in that substratum, a major wedge of them is underpaid. It’s a nobrainer that we need to transform our curriculums to match this massive requirement.