Daily Times

I needed a thought-provoking title, the point I want to highlight is that we do not talk much about a prosperous or promising future in Pakistan, where the luxuries of life will be available to everyone. Rather than that, we always talk about a future where only the basic necessities of life will be available to man; But we need a homeland where everyone should be treated as a human being; where their rights will be protected and where no one would die of hunger.

But then the question arises that can education really guarantee such a secure future to the youth, and the answer obviously is negative.

Pakistan is under the developing country in which comprehensive, high standard education is significant for its future prosperity. According to the National Human Development Report, out of the total population of Pakistan, 64 percent is below the age of 30 and 29 percent is between the age of 15-29 years. According to this report, this is the highest ratio of youth group recorded in history so far. If Pakistan controls to streamline and develop its strong education system and provide skills to its youth, this demographic transformation could be a powerful engine of economic growth and development. But on reality grounds, strong shreds of evidence indicate that most of the people get educated, in search of a well-protected future but even after getting higher education, our youth is not getting satisfactory jobs and are unemployed. According to the labor force survey 2017-2018, About 8.78 million people in Pakistan who are 20 or above, hold at least bachelor’s degrees in different subjects of Science and Humanities disciplines. Around 5.97m of the total, individuals are financially dynamic while 0.97m are jobless.

One question comes in the mind that “How does it feel to be jobless even after having graduated from renowned institutes of Pakistan?” Sounds shocking. Isn’t it?

There is a number of factors responsible for this shocking fact, one of them is educational attainment that is not directly linked to employment prospects. Undoubtedly a prominent issue that raises doubts about the “value and relevance” of Pakistani education.

The dilemma we are facing as a society is that in our educational institute, undergraduate subjects and curriculum have not changed for so many decades and students who want to keep themselves in competition with the modern world are compelled to study the syllabus which has been profoundly solidified for such a long time. This is a major reason why students find it difficult to cope up with their practical life or professions. We know technology and innovation are evolving in the workplace with the passage of time, the modern workplace demands more skilled employees to get the work done easily. It’s the need of an hour to re-evaluate and reform the academic foundations which will help the students to enhance their working skills and function them efficiently.

In other words, we have to need to pause, disconnect and re-shape our education system. This fact can’t be denied that the fundamental responsibility of government is to provide such a congenial environment to its citizens where they could avail of better job opportunities. A year ago, our government promised about so many facilities and one of them was 10 million jobs. Today all that appears dangerously naïve. The dependency load on a nation like ours is increasing every year. Child labor is also on an increase; social and morals evils are becoming too mainstream and these are the outcomes of unemployment!

Competent authorities should try to address these issues on a priority basis by enabling educational institutes to devote funds towards vocational or technical education, which is more required in the market. Companies should also incentivize workers to work in different positions to better utilize and enhance their skills.

The writer is a Lecturer in the faculty of Physical Sciences at the Government College University, Lahore. She can be reached at robiashaheen@gcu.edu.pk