Reimagining Nai Talim

The virus lockdown exposes five regulatory hurdles, holding back an important pillar of learning's future: degree-linked apprentices

In 1937 Mahatma Gandhi used an education conference at Wardha to synthesise a framework for massifying experiential learning — Nai Talim — that aimed to overcome the artificial and harmful distinctions between learning and teaching, and knowledge and work. Unfortunately, Nai Talim never took off because the British Raj realised that massifying education endangered its survival and the post-1947 education policy neglected skill development. But the differential outcomes for skilled and unskilled wo­rkers during the virus lockdown have exposed the urgency of massifying flexible, low-cost, demand-driven skill de­velopment that innovates in financing and delivers signalling value. We make the case