How Do Teachers Train Kids for Jobs That Don’t Exist Yet, Asks Shashi Tharoor

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At the Invest Karnataka 2025 event, Lok Sabha member of Parliament Sashi Tharoor called for a fundamental reevaluation of how skills are taught in schools in India to better prepare students for the rapidly evolving intelligence age. Tharoor spoke at a panel with George A Papandreou, former prime minister of Greece, on the theme ‘Thriving in turbulence: How nations can build lasting resilience’. 

The leaders recognised AI-driven disruption as one of the key challenges that nations must navigate for long-term growth. Citing a report from the Oxford Martin School, Tharoor highlighted that 30% of jobs in 2030 will be jobs that don’t exist today. 

This poses a challenge for educators. “How do you tell a teacher to train a kid for a job that doesn’t exist yet?” Tharoor asked.

“I say this to teachers all the time: Don’t teach the young people what to think…Teaching them how to think is what’s going to equip them for this uncertain world where they’re going to be confronting facts, ideas, and information they’ve never encountered before,” he added.

According to the MP, this would, by extension, retrain and empower children so they are not left behind by AI-driven economic changes.

The Crisis in Education

The traditional education system is outdated and based on an industrial-era model, suggested Papandreou.

Working with AI is the future. According to Tharoor, AI will make rote learning obsolete, requiring an education system that fosters creativity, problem-solving, and adaptability. He said that India, like several other countries, is not prepared for the speed of disruption and faces the paradox of having the world’s largest population of educated unemployed. This highlights the mismatch between education and employment opportunities.

The transformation of the labour market was a stressing point at the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit. 

US vice president JD Vance suggested that students should be taught how to manage and interact with AI, portraying a shift in AI policy. Instead of focusing on regulation or job loss, the focus should be on the need for AI education to prepare future generations for the evolving workforce. Similarly, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressed the need for upskilling as India moves towards an AI-driven economy, a message previously reflected in the Union Budget 2025.

Anthropic, the company behind the Claude model series, recently released a report which highlighted AI’s influence on the workplace.

The findings revealed that approximately 36% of all occupations incorporate AI for at least a quarter of their tasks. Moreover, 57% of AI applications enhance human capabilities, while 43% focus on automation. However, only 4% of occupations rely on AI for at least 75% of their tasks.

The study identified software development and technical writing as the primary areas where AI is utilised. In contrast, AI plays a minimal role in tasks that involve physical interaction with the environment.

This underscores the importance of building skills that are suited for a post-singularity world, where AI becomes deeply integrated into daily life and work.

The Future of Jobs Report 2025, released by the World Economic Forum, states that 39% of core job skills are expected to change, and the future of work demands agility.

The key question is whether we can empower students to solve major problems with AI as a tool rather than fear being replaced by it throughout their education.

Challenging Conventional Thinking

Tharoor pointed out that, in the past, most people might have believed a car could only run on petrol. Musk questioned this idea and innovated by creating electric cars with batteries instead of relying on fuel-powered engines.

This illustrates how even the most fundamental assumptions, like the need for petrol to power cars, can be challenged and, eventually, become a catalyst for innovation. 

The tech revolution is also closely linked to a shift in mindset. 

Tharoor also emphasised that seemingly absurd questions should not be discouraged, as innovation arises from those out-of-the-box ideas.

Notably, a prototype of flying taxi startup Sarla Aviation was available at the summit. “I think at some point here in Bengaluru, you’re going to fly to the airport. It’s not going to take an hour; it’s going to take five minutes,” said Google X founder Sebastian Thrun during his panel discussion at Invest Karnataka.

Tharoor and Papandreou spoke in favour of economic reforms to redistribute wealth, especially as humanity enters the AI age. There is a need for redistribution policies, a focus on citizen empowerment, and creating more equitable opportunities. 

Several experts, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, have called for the need for Universal Basic Income (UBI) as we near this new reality. 
Since the launch of DeepSeek, companies have been working with a sense of urgency to accelerate AI development. Nearly all the leading labs have emphasised the upcoming phase, where AI’s potential will greatly benefit humanity and handle most of the economic tasks. The release of Grok 3, described by xAI co-founder Elon Musk as the “smartest AI on Earth”, is also set to launch tonight.