EDUCATION BEYOND EMPLOYMENT

There is no better way to confirming the deteriorating standards of our education than looking at the just released Junior Certificate examination results. More has been said of such a decline but unfortunately very little of it has been solutions. Today, as we see the standards further crash, and private schools and poor teachers pay, has been in the spotlight as the leading causes of the sad state of affairs, Very few people point to our economy’s failure to create meaningful employment as something that has to be taken seriously as a cause for this. Very few realize, that getting educated no longer motivates people as it used to do in the years gone. The end result, Students go to school without realizing why they are there.

In my opinion, the nations over reliance and overemphasis on education as a means to getting formal employment, coupled with the very failure of the economy to provide such employment has been behind the falling standards of our education. In my younger days, my parents used to tell me to work hard in school so that I should get employed in a good company. Indeed during that time, a JCE holder was able to inspire you to work hard in schools and be like him. With the worlds dynamism, today, a JCE let alone a Bachelors degree is of very little or no value if you want to use it as a tool for gaining employment. The job market is flooded with people with all sorts of qualifications who are failing to secure employment. No wonder, corruption in the job market is at its very peak. Today, people advertise jobs for formality’s sake when the person to fill the vacant post has already been identified behind closed doors.

Today, if you loose your job where you are working, it does not matter whether you have a degree or a JCE, you have to prepare to remain jobless for as long as you cannot imagine. Those who are still in employment rarely accept to retire even when their productive years have long passed and there is no room for someone coming straight from school to get any space in the company. It is unfortunate that those who are still in our schools today see this-and with the illusion that education is there to make them get employed, all motivation gets lost. Frustration takes its toll; indiscipline rears its ugly head. The teacher himself is someone whose own ambition of being a big boss at a good company did not materialize and only took up teaching because he has to earn something to survive; one would be insane to anticipate anything good from our educational system in such an environment.

Our education system however, is not beyond redemption. Restoring the system, demands that we refuse to see the illusion that education is there to enable us get better employment. There is need to refocus our energies towards rediscovering that education is the very foundation on which our nation’s growth must stand. Education should be rightly understood as a means to sharpening skills, challenging and removing dogma in the minds of those who go through the system. Education should be considered an end in itself and not a means to some obscure end which might not even come. Our policies must be tailored to support the empowerment of those leaving school as job makers. There must be a deliberate effort to recognize the other important functions for our education institutions other than the training of a labour force.

The policies have to challenge and encourage young graduates to be creative and be able to crave other ways of surviving other than seeking employment. In this regard, the government and the banks must be ready to play the role of the micro financier and be able to support the projects being undertaken by those graduating from school. Banks need to be prepared to take risks of financing people whose only possession is their qualification. The government too, instead of using most of its resources on the things that the NGO are already helping it do, has to be ready to cover the banks in case of such loses.

If young people of this country will be supported to create their own means of surviving, chances are great that people will be able to understand the true purpose of education. In this way, the system will be able to bring back motivation to the students and in a way move towards repairing our education. Creating a better understanding of why we need to get educated thus is the only way to ensure a complete restoration of our education system where the promise of jobs has fallen apart.