Well - I am not sure if the title reflects the actual contents of the post. But I couldn’t think of any appropriate words for the title. Excuse me for that.
We all keep hearing the statement that Level (and Standard) of Education in Pakistan is pretty low, as compared to other develping (or even under developed nations) . A while ago it was quoted as 26% , which also included people who could sign their names and read an urdu newspaper.
Considering that Pakistan is primarily an agricultural economy, what exactly is our requirement. We dont seem to have a plan or a guidline for that.
There is no defined career path for most of the Hi-Tech graduates (Engineers / IT / Medicine / Business etc etc. who become available in the job market after spending a certain number of years at college & university).
Logic would say that quality (and quantity) of workforce should reflect the actual requirement of the market. The Hi-Tech graduates are centered around 3 or 4 major cities i.e. Karachi, Lahore, Isb/Rwp. There will be a saturation point somewhere down the road, we just cant keep pumping Engineers and Doctors and Business specialists into these 3 centers of the pakistani economy, where the infra structure and new industry is not expanding at the same pace. In fact it seems to have stagnated.
On the other hand, the agricultural infra-structure has not been able to keep pace with the rest of the world. It is neglected. We are still about 20 years behind in agricultural techniques and have failed to increase our output. Wouldnt it make more sense to give this neglected sector some serious thought ?
If the argument is that Pakistan is on the path to move away from the agriculture and trying to establish itself in the Service industry (Finance/IT etc.), then we dont seem to have a plan for that. Licensing 4 telecom companies in karachi or Lahore is not going to provide the breakthru that is needed.
If the standard of education is raised, I mean the govt. becomes serious, opens high schools, colleges, universities in the villages and far flung areas, away from the main cities (a wild speculation) , then within 15 - 20 years we will have a large group of young people from the lower and middle class , who will be available in the job market. Their expectations would also be high. What will we have to offer them , to absorb them into the economy, to tap their potential ? NOTHING …
Probably it will result in a brain drain in mass numbers.
To me it seems like a vicious cycle, We dont have enough qualified people to make a major breakthrough and move away from Agri to service industry. We dont have an infra-structure OR a plan to absorb educated and qualified people in large numbers…
What is your opinion? What should be our plan.