A gap year can fill some critical gaps in Indian education system

For decades, India’s education system, in terms of the number of years spent in school, followed the 11 + 1 model. In the late ’70s, a switch was made to the 10 + 2 format. The total number of years of formal schooling remained the same at 12 (leaving aside KG classes).

However, the quantum of knowledge a student must master in the same period has expanded multifold. A student is expected to know more and also have a deeper understanding of subjects to squeeze through increasingly tougher processes for admission to colleges.

There have been two other important developments. First, the career choices that a student could consider after schooling have multiplied. One can now pursue an undergraduate degree in Data Analytics, Sports Management, Bioinformatics, Hospitality & Tourism Management, Occupational Therapy, Speech-Language Pathology, and many more disciplines that did not even exist at the undergrad level till a few years ago. This proliferation of disciplines is accelerating.

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Second, an average Indian’s life expectancy stood at 45 years in 1960. It climbed to 70 in 2020. The steep reduction in infant mortality, better overall healthcare, including access to vaccination, the availability of nutritious food, and other reasons have contributed to lengthening the life span of an average Indian. The trend will continue, and it is estimated that an average Indian will live up to 82 years in 2100.

In short, while the number of years of formal schooling has remained the same, the content to be mastered has expanded, domains to choose from after schooling have proliferated, and one will live nearly seven decades after leaving school, trying to put to use what one learnt in youth to live well over a long span.

Here’s where the concept of the increasingly popular “gap year”, taken by a student as a break between high school and college, fits in.

The benefits of gap year

A gap year helps a student reflect on his or her interests and abilities and explore the world through travel, short academic courses, and internships or work, before zeroing in on what to pursue in college. It also offers a break from a standardized learning environment. The learnings and experiences gathered during the gap year will be unique to each person, unlike in school.

So, what values does a gap year bring to a student? Plenty. Let’s look at some.

Self-paced Learning: This mode is ideally meant for a student searching for what s/he could devote his/her life to but hasn’t found it yet. An expert in career counselling says it might help if a student could refine a big question or a big challenge that s/he wants to address, or a big idea to chase over the next few decades. Working in a bakery or restaurant, in an accountant’s office, in a farm, with a tour operator, with a musician or artist as an apprentice, and lots more are all choices here.

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That said, it is also possible not to be attached to any entity or person during the self-paced learning phase. A former student of a top boarding school in India, after completing Class XII, took a year off to travel all over India. At the end of the gap year, she applied to an Ivy League university in the US, narrating her experiences and learnings from the gap year. She was admitted with a full scholarship despite not having a scintillating academic score. In this mode, being able to write down with clarity what one learnt during the gap year is critical.

MOOCs: Online platforms offering Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), such as Coursera, Udemy, and edX, offer short-term courses besides academic programmes leading to degrees. The courses are offered by top global universities and domain experts. You could pick up a new language, learn about an emerging area such as Machine Learning, hone your abilities to write well in English, and figure out Game Theory — the list is endless. While the courses are mostly offered for free, if one wanted assignments assessed and a certificate on completing a course, the portals charge a small fee. Any number of courses could be done – both sequentially and simultaneously.

Structured programmes: Several organisations across India offer structured volunteering and internship opportunities for students before they enter the portals of colleges. Some need to be paid for. Many of these are domain-specific.

Internship opportunities

Consider The Madras Crocodile Bank Trust, which offers a volunteer programme across a wide range of projects in areas ranging from herpetology to rainforest research. The Croc Bank consists of a large reptile park near Chennai and several field projects located across India. As a volunteer, the intern will have an opportunity to work in different components — research, education, and maintenance of a zoo. While on the internship, one pays for accommodation and food and does not receive any stipend. However, the experience is considered valuable when applying for academic programs in universities.

Internship and job aggregators such as SimplyHired and Internshala also help aspirants to apply for work in domains such as finance, customer service, data entry, and more.

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What is also working for gap-year aspirants is a change in the mindset of recruiters for jobs after they complete their college education. Till a few years ago, a “gap” in the profile, indicating a break in academics, was taken to be negative. A candidate was typically asked to explain the “break” by a sceptical recruiter. This is no longer the case. A gap year in the resume is considered more as an indicator of a discerning mind by recruiters.

A point of caution

A gap year should not be confused with a “drop year,” which is meant for focused preparation to face tough entrance tests such as IIT-JEE and NEET. In a “drop year,” the student has already chosen a career and course to pursue and is using the time only to crack a tough selection process.

In contrast, a gap year helps students reflect on or discover their interests and abilities, improve communication, writing, and other skills, get a glimpse of the world, assess opportunities, and make up their minds about what they want to pursue to lead a meaningful life.