Dr. Narad Bharadwaj

LINKING education with employment is one of the key objectives of education. Ironically, however, this is exactly where Nepal’s education system exposes a yawning gap. The present reality of Nepal’s education system is that when a student graduates he/she is cut off from the production process of the society. Most of our children get drifted away from their family entrepreneurship during their studies and their transition from education to employment remains cut off.

Why this is happening is a question which has remained unanswered as hundreds of thousands of youths go abroad annually in search of employment opportunities. Our education, be it basic or higher, is constrained with lack of vision about preparing graduates who can seamlessly merge in the employment market after completing their education.

One of the most conspicuous weaknesses of our education system appears to be the absence of a well thought-out plan aimed at preparing students to help them connect with the broad global employment market. There is no curriculum either in school or university education that exposes students to work, cultivates love for labour and instills confidence in them about their own creative potentials.

This has led to the production of graduates with little practical ability to cash in the productive opportunities available in the society they are living. Schools and colleges are expected to inculcate critical thinking, ability to analyse situations and help students discover their own way of unleashing their creative ability. But the experience of the past six decades of educational experiments has proved that we have failed to impart these attributes to our students.

Development of creative thinking is one of the most valuable acquirement of education. Creative thinking does not mean an extraordinary precocity. It is an ability to to do things which helps alleviate the burden of labour, finds a way from seemingly hopeless despair and helps create condition that may be useful in other broader social contexts also.

Creative ability empowers people, makes them capable of establishing enterprises or provides skilled service to people who may need it. Our schools, colleges and universities do not appear to have given proper thought to production of graduates who can devise strategies for survival in whatever condition they find themselves in.

Because of our failure to do this, we are now in a very awkward situation. We have embarked on a challenging task of leading our country from the present level of economic stagnation to prosperity. But the human resource we require for the country’s development is going abroad. The youths do not see prospect for gainful engagement in the country and get tempted to look for greener pastures abroad.

Till now, the curriculum of the Nepali educational institutes is mostly academic. There is no sufficient room for technical innovation and practical training on any field of pursuits except in some purely technical disciplines and in the field of pure science.

Despite the sea change that the world has undergone in the teaching and learning process, many public academic institutions have not adapted themselves with the latest pedagogical innovations. Even the colleges and universities have not shown keen interest in implementing participatory teaching and learning methods. The teaching is still mainly one way affair. A teacher lectures and the students imbibe what divine knowledg he may utter in the class rooms.
Schools, colleges and universities must first be aware of challenges of development we face today and restructure the curriculum accordingly. They should assess the need of various categories of human resources needed for the ongoing projects and those projects on the pipelines. Students must be provided adequate background and theoretical knowledge gradually providing them exposure to practical on-the-job training as an indespensible part of fulfilling their courses.

If the universities start to explore the areas of necessity and endeavour for producing competent youth human resource qualified for getting absorbed in the ever unfolding job markets created by diverse economic activities, the problem of unemployment can be addressed.

In the present context of rapid globalisation, the entire planet is opening itself as a potential job market for every citizen. As the Nepalis are going to different overseas job destinations, Nepal is also open as a job market for aspiring foreign job seekers. Therefore, the academic institutions of Nepal must provide high emphasis to cultivating students’ skill of foreign languages.

It has been discovered that school, college and university graduates who are conversant in the use of foreign languages are rarely unemployed. In fact, such people have landed relatively high-paying white-colour jobs in comparison with those who are weak in the skill of using foreign languages or are able to write or speak only the Nepali language.

Quality of education comes through linking theory with practice. The wider is the canvas of the practical experience of life the richer is the intellectual attainment of an individual. The problem with our system of learning is that we drift away from our traditional system of education closely tied up with the production process but fail to hook up our education process with the research-based, interactive and participatory norms of western education.

Another problem of our education is that it is class distinctive. From the very beginning our education system inculcates a sense of difference among the students from those who are not privileged to acquire education, from those who live in rural areas, from those who work in the farms or factories and from those who are engaged in manual labour.

This sense of distinction also gradually cultivates in them an aversion to labour against the age old principle of learning by doing. In Nepal, students feel ashamed to go to field to help their parents in farm work; they are reluctant to give a hand in a kitchen work or cleaning of the house. The problem does not lie in personal behaviourism, it lies in the failure of educational institutions to instill a sense of respect for labour in students.

The education system of our country is demanding for a drastic overhaul. It is time for educators and academic planners to think about a form of education which prepares graduates who adore labour, are ready to apply their creative thinking to find a space for them in the productive process and are by-lingual or multi-lingual.

Students learn theories of different disciplines of learning but it is equally important for them to develop skill to link the theoretical knowledge with the practical context of life. They should develop the natural capacity to implement the knowledge in their concerned sectors of employment market. If they fail to stand test in facing the challenges thrown upon them by life, the purpose of education remains defeated.

Published on: 5 July 2019 | The Rising Nepal