India Today Conclave 2026 South: Reimagining The Indian Classroom: How To Connect Degrees With Jobs

Campus protests: causes and context

The discussion frames recent protests across campuses (including elite institutes and colleges in Punjab, among others) as the result of multiple factors, including political elements and internal institutional issues.

A key theme is mismatch:

• Skill mismatch: Graduates are not trained for the actual needs of jobs.
• Expectation mismatch: Institutions/regulators fail to account for what today’s students expect—such as a better learning environment, stronger support systems, flexibility, and mental-health consideration.

The panel also argues that AI increases uncertainty by challenging the traditional authority of teachers and institutions, because information is instantly accessible. It further raises fears about whether jobs will disappear or be automated.

Mental health and burnout

Mental health and burnout are highlighted as major protest drivers:

• Adolescents face a mental health crisis, linked to heavy screen time/social media use, less physical activity, and an education system focused on rote memorization and excessive workload.
• Many students arrive at top institutions already exhausted (from coaching/exams and constant pressure), and some even regret or drop out—fueling unrest even at leading campuses.

The overall argument: when students feel unsupported, overburdened, and mismatched to the future world of work, institutional legitimacy erodes.

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What classrooms should change

From the education/teacher-facing perspective, the system lacks clarity of communication:

• It’s not enough to teach answers—students must learn how to define the problem first, since real life and industry don’t follow “get a problem → solve it.”
• Teachers should shift from being primarily knowledge transmitters to mediators of experience and problem-solving.
• Teachers themselves need preparation for this evolution.

AI literacy, not AI expertise

The panel emphasizes AI literacy—how to use AI effectively with strong domain understanding—rather than requiring students to become AI experts.

Communication as employability

Students also need communication and “storytelling” as core employability skills: expressing ideas and outcomes, not merely completing assignments.

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Role of flexibility, industry links, and curriculum reform

The panel argues for stronger, more practical alignment between education and industry:

• Curricular flexibility: Institutions should be able to update content with industry support and rebuild learning around evolving real-world problems.
• Earlier industry collaboration: Industry should bring real challenges, not only final solutions.
• Student involvement through internships and project-based problem solving.

Government policy is cited for supporting:

• internship recognition, and
• faculty-industry engagement (e.g., enabling faculty to spend time in industry to return with updated problem awareness).

Collaboration that hasn’t scaled

There is concern that professor-practitioner collaboration and industry-institution partnerships have stalled:

• Some momentum existed after the 2000s—especially around 2010 with corporate investment.
• But collaboration often becomes surface-level, such as companies teaching in second/third-tier colleges while deeper teacher-industry updating does not scale.

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VIT’s flexible credit system as a model

One presenter highlights VIT’s fully flexible credit system (introduced around 2008 and implemented across multiple campuses), which allows students to:

• self-accelerate or slow down (finish in ~3 years or extend up to ~5),
• customize learning to life needs and abilities, and
• take longer internships (time availability makes it easier for companies to hire interns).

A success anecdote is shared to show that flexibility can improve outcomes—especially internship access and successful career progression.

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Values and lifelong learning—not just employability

Beyond job readiness, the panel argues institutions must cultivate values such as:

• empathy,
• loyalty,
• leadership ethics.

They also suggest preparation for life and work beyond the first job—up to the fifth job, not just the initial placement.

The overarching aim of institution-industry partnership is to produce lifelong learners—people who keep learning without constant external instruction.

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Rethinking the teacher: dignity, support, and training

Multiple arguments converge on the idea that nothing can fully replace the teacher’s classroom role—especially for:

• empathy,
• guidance, and
• identity-building.

However, the system is said to underinvest in teachers:

• Teachers lack time and support to retool for AI-era teaching.
• Teacher training is treated as secondary; mistakes are often blamed on teachers.

The panel calls for more resources to strengthen teacher training and dignity.

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“School Tik Karo” campaign: the fundamental change

When asked what single change could best fix rural schools (within a nationwide “school tik karo” campaign focused on infrastructure), both speakers prioritize human capacity over buildings:

• Best teachers / more teachers first, not toilets/desks/computers as the main benchmark.
• Upgrading existing teachers for the AI era is a second priority.
• Infrastructure-only efforts are criticized as charity rather than capacity building.

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Presenters/Contributors

• Mr. Viswanathan
• Ms. Agrawal
• Ms. Aggarwal
• (CJP) mentioned as running the “school tik karo” campaign (not specified as a speaker)
• Host/moderator (unnamed) who posed questions and steered the session