Industries in India face a paradox as five million students who graduate every year don’t have skills required for jobs being created, Vinita Bali, former managing director of Britannia, has said.

At the 9th edition of School of Tomorrow conference held here on Saturday, Bali highlighted the quality of leadership and innovation as keys to competitiveness of schools. “We need to create education that instils critical and analytical skills in students. Education is in a very difficult situation now, as graduating students lack functional skills.“ The conference was organized by XSEED, an education company focusing on assessment of K-8 children (those studying in elementary middle schools).

The theme ­ “No Quality , No Business“ ­ sought to motivate over 400 participating chairpersons, trustees and academic heads of schools across the country about considering quality of learning and teaching seriously, linking it directly to success of their institutions.

The conference was attended by Charles Fadel, Harvard education expert; Ashish Rajpal, a Harvard graduate in education and founder of XSEED; Praveen Sood, additional director general of police; Priya Krishnan, Klay pre-schools founder and Dr. Rajat Chauhan, physician and physical fitness advocate.