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| Tuesday, 14 September 2004 |
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The bliss of graduate employment by Andrew Scott It must be gratefully appreciated that the President and the Minister
of Finance have taken quick and meaningful steps to Some may not understand why the new government was prompted to give top priority to solve the problem of graduate unemployment at a time when the country is facing so many other equally important issues. If we analyse this all important problems in an unbiased way we can clearly comprehend why the government has addressed its mind to solve this problem so quickly. The nation's universities continue to turn out annually thousands of graduates and most of them who are in the prime of their youth are forced to remain unemployed without any official or public sympathy. However much they are educated in the arts and the sciences (some of them even with classes) their chances of being gainfully employed in suitable vocation fitting their academic attainment are remote. As a result Sri Lanka has produced an unhappy and frustrated band of unemployed graduates about whom successive governments did not think seriously at the national level in spite of the fact that these graduates are a great national resource to this country. Thus it is appreciable that the present government has harnessed all its powers to give employment to the unemployed graduates. To be unemployed, specially in one's youth, is a curse indeed and to be unemployed after graduation from a university is to be twice cursed. Until the government's recent plan to give employment to these graduates, most of these unemployed graduates scanned advertisements in the newspapers and the government gazette with perhaps the same or even a greater interest and hope with which they browsed over their laboriously written lecture notes. It is well-known that along with the increase in the number of universities in Sri Lanka the number of unemployed graduates increased alarmingly. Most of these young men and women quickly changed their political loyalties and became hopeful that particularly the State would provide them with ample job opportunities. But it is saddening that most of the successive governments in Sri Lanka miserably failed to provide them with adequate job opportunities and they were forced to live in a spirit of rebellion until the present government stepped forward to solve almost completely this problem of graduate unemployment. In Sri Lanka today many graduates are engaged in doing much lower jobs than their ambitious university education makes them entitled to. Until the recent appointments were given for several years many of these unemployed graduates languished both in the villages as well as in the towns waiting hopefully for some acceptable opening for them. In spite of a university education some of them had to take up any type of job that brought them a steady income to sustain them as well as their families who had sacrificed much to give them a university education. It is well-known that until the present government took meaningful measures to solve the problem of graduate unemployment most of these unemployed graduates lived in constant fear whether they would ever get an opportunity to be employed and to serve their motherland. It is surprising that in a country such as Sri Lanka which invests so heavily on education, some medical, dental, agricultural, vet. science and science graduates are unemployed either to a greater or lesser extent and this itself speaks eloquently on how gainlessly some of these graduates are forced to spend the best years of their valuable lives. Most of these unemployed graduates specially those in the rural areas have to lead thoroughly frustrated life and sooner or later they realise that they have let down their parents who had to spend all their hard-earned money and sometimes had to sell or mortgage their lands to give a university education to their sons and daughters. While their children have no hope of future employment their parents too are highly worried how to pay their debts they have incurred to educate their children. While appreciating the practical efforts of the present Government to solve the problem of unemployed graduates it is time we also ponder on the causes that have led to graduate unemployment in this country. One of the main causes for this is our faulty system of education which should be quickly revamped. Throughout the years in the field of education in Sri Lanka many commissions have sat, deliberated at length and submitted attractive proposals. But practically nothing appreciable has been achieved. To solve this problem of graduate unemployment in the long run it is very important that we focus our immediate attention to bring in new and speedy reforms in our ailing education system. Today's foremost need is to gear university education to the country's employment needs and it is only then that we could solve this problem completely. It is encouraging that the present Government has considered this problem of unemployed graduates as one of the most important national issues and has sought ways and means to solve it immediately. It is embarking on this ambitious programme by offering employment for as many graduates as possible by expanding its employment opportunities and by giving necessary incentives to the private sector too to engage the services of these unemployed graduates. Now that most of these graduates are being employed by the State it is important that the services of these new recruits be intelligently harnessed to make the country turn its tide to prosperity and contentment. The new recruits too should strive hard to serve the country with responsibility, sacrifice and dedication unmindful of petty political and other differences. |
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solve almost
completely the ever burning problem of the unemployed graduates which this
country has been facing for several decades.
