Tapping defence human capital for education

The sheer diversity of competencies possessed by retired armed forces personnel must be matched to suitable institutions and initiatives

The education sector presents an excellent opportunity for the armed forces to contribute skilled manpower to the Viksit Bharat initiative, which seeks to make India a repository of human capital by 2047. Apart from the National Education Policy (NEP 2020) initiative to hire professors of practice from among distinguished veterans of the armed forces with academic pedigree, there is little else that leverages the vast potential of thousands of retiring servicemen and women in the education sector. Given the current turbulence in the education space and the government’s inclination towards further reform, this article suggests methodologies to leverage the multiple competencies of Armed Forces personnel in the education sector.

Highly qualified officers can be offered professorships depending on their experience, competence and willingness to integrate fully into the academic world (HT Archive)

While attempts have been made by the services and the government to ensure that servicemen across ranks who retire every year are integrated into civil society and take up a second career, much can still be done to leverage the wide range of competencies that these disciplined citizens could offer the country in the process of nation-building. Leveraging the multiple competencies of men and women who have served the nation with selfless commitment in the education sector offers immense value addition.

The sheer diversity and range of competencies and educational qualifications possessed by retiring personnel must be carefully examined by the ministry of education and matched to suitable institutions and initiatives. As compared to earlier times, when most of the Personnel Below Officers Rank (PBORs) retired without a graduate degree, the situation has changed significantly today. Large numbers of PBORs, particularly from the navy and air force, acquire a degree in service through correspondence courses, while those from the Army Education Corps (AEC) may have had an opportunity to acquire a graduate degree while in service. These PBORs have excellent potential to teach in rural schools, especially in regions from where they hail.

Army PBORs from the Corps of Signals, Corps of Engineers and Corps of Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (EME), and technically proficient air force and naval PBORs who have actively worked on ships, aircraft and systems have excellent potential to teach in vocational training institutes and ITIs, either in a vernacular, Hindi or English medium depending on their abilities. As far as the navy and air force are concerned, a small percentage of PBORs even acquire a post-graduate degree and are capable of being trained and absorbed at the college level and, in a few cases, even at the university level. Of interest to the education sector should be those PBORs from all three services who have instructional experience at various training establishments with certification and potential to teach at vocational training institutes. The education ministry needs to curate customised teaching and instructional pedagogy courses for these personnel to familiarise them with existing teaching methodologies.

Most officers in the three services superannuate between the ages of 54-56. A growing number are seeking premature retirement (PR) between the ages of 40-50, and a few opt for PR even earlier due to compelling personal reasons. Many of these officers are post graduates with varied competencies cutting across disciplines. Several of these officers have teaching and instructional experience in various institutions of professional learning, a comprehensive list of which can be obtained from the service HQs. While the corporate sector has welcomed retiring officers with open arms, the same cannot be said of the education sector, mainly because of poor pay scales and a lack of institutionalised government initiatives beyond the professor of practice initiative.

Several PBORs retire and settle down in their native villages/towns, taking up sundry jobs in the unorganised sector or looking after their ancestral property. Those with graduate degrees can easily be motivated to become school teachers after specialised training that need not necessarily be a B.Ed. Some of the PBORs with a technical background can join vocational institutes; with more permutations and combinations existing if the right strategy is adopted. Moving up the value chain, officers with the requisite qualifications can easily join colleges, ITIs, and other vocational institutes as lecturers, administrators and counsellors after appropriate training. Highly qualified officers can be offered professorships depending on their experience, competence and willingness to integrate fully into the academic world.

There needs to be a ministry-to-ministry understanding and awareness drive, followed by familiarisation visits by the ministry of education and professionals from NCERT, UGC, and vocational institutes to various training establishments and units across the three services. These visits could be coordinated by the directorate of resettlement and would lay the foundation of a long-term relationship between the services and the education sector. The next step would be to identify vacancies and training requirements for integrating servicemen into the sector. Since higher education is being privatised in a big way, bringing the private sector on board is crucial for the success of this initiative. A sustained campaign that revolves around nation-building, influencing younger generations with discipline and commitment, and producing responsible citizens would go a long way in inspiring and motivating ex-servicemen to become teachers, instructors, and professors.

One of the major recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission was to facilitate lateral transfer of ex-servicemen at all levels into para-military and central and state police forces. A similar move into the education sector is worth considering. Embracing such an initiative affords an excellent opportunity in nation-building and inculcating the values of hard work, focus and discipline in the younger generation by veterans from the Armed Forces, at a time when the vast youth of the country are searching for meaningful direction.

Arjun Subramaniam is a retired air vice marshal and a visiting faculty at Kautilya School of Public Policy, Hyderabad. The views expressed are personal