Pakistan - Students disillusionment

Inamullah Marwat

Poor research culture may be attributed to incompetence of those who are at the helm, teachers, but is also because of the paucity of resources required for conducting proper research.

Pakistan has been churning out thousands and thousands of graduates across the country in Social Sciences every year. Majority of the graduates, as per authors’ view who are also fresh graduates, instead of pursuing their careers in their chosen field of studies and directing their academic pursuits in figuring out problems faced by the society at large in their chosen field of studies, try to become a part of the job market without considering whether they have required skills for the job for which they are applying. This mad pursuit of jobs among graduates, as per authors’ views after they asked a majority of the graduates, is fuelled by haunting fear of unemployment. This growing trend among graduates has popularised essence of education lying only in becoming a part of the job market. The trend has now seeped into the minds of about-to-become graduates who, while studying, instead of focusing on their studies for long-term academic pursuits, approach their studies in a non-serious way, thinking that their role is only to attain a degree and nothing else. This crazy pursuit of jobs on the part of graduates in other fields instead of academic pursuits in their chosen fields of studies is the failure of those who are at the helm in academia, and this trend has not let academia in Pakistan to thrive. The cost of which is that Pakistan, with a huge demographic dividend in the form of 60% youth bulge and thousands of graduates, thanks to its shambolic education system, can hardly capitalise on a small chunk of its youth bulge devoted enough to work on its problems in academia through research. Overall, there is a great disillusionment pervasive among Pakistani students with respect to pursuing a career in academia which is very much reflective of the way they desperately want to escape from the world of academia.

In the face of the problems that Pakistan has been facing, Pakistan needs vibrant academia to figure out solutions for its problems. But why is it so that academia in Pakistan is not resonating with its graduates’ lot as an option for a career? In this op-ed, an effort has been made to shed light on why is there a disillusionment among students to pursue a career in academia.

One of the major reasons students do not stand by their fields of studies resulting their escape from academia is because they have not chosen those fields of studies through consent after proper counselling. Students, most of the time, because of having no access to career counselling, ride on bandwagons in their academic pursuits without ascertaining whether she has a knack for a particular field of studies, and, later on, try to find an escape from those field of studies. This bandwagonism can be illustrated by the way students rush for pre-medical and pre-engineering after Matric or O-Levels. In the case of social sciences, this bandwagonism exists in the form of competitive exams. Everybody, who studies social sciences, is having an obsession with taking competitive exams like CSS and PMS. Because of not having a clear idea about the scope of their subjects, social sciences students most of the time go for these exams to say adios to the world of academia.

Moreover, academia in Pakistan does not inspire students’ lot as there is poor research culture prevalent in academia because of which students hardly find ideas of their subject resonating with their world view. Poor research culture may be attributed to the incompetence of those who are at the helm, teachers, but is also because of the paucity of resources required for conducting proper research. Moreover, because of the intellectual righty due to the conservative milieu, the academia generally does not provide a conducive environment for research over issues like women empowerment, religion, etc. Because of the poor research culture, students have poor analytical skills and have a superficial understanding of their subjects because of which they do not find academia interesting. Also, apathy on the part of teachers towards invoking students’ interest in the subject because of being paid a meagre amount as salary is also one of the reasons why students do not find academia as an appealing professional option.

Passion, yes, it is required by this profession. Selflessness, that too is called for. Devotion, yeah, definitely! These three attributes do seem quite difficult to inculcate and bring together in one single personality but believe us when we say that all three require an irresistible, or irrational as stated by many, motive for your belief. The only driving force that can convince an individual to deliver to the profession s/he wanted to learn the most from is the obstinacy and determination to change the course of the system. If you could not get what you wanted to from the prevailing norms of the system and if you are least bothered to mould and mend its ways, then how is it possible to expect transformation in future generations?

We realise the salaries are low. We acknowledge that working conditions are harsh. We concede that teaching is a thankless job. But someone has to become the torchbearer. Someone has to make all those quotations a reality from which inspiration is attempted to be taken. Someone has to teach the world what teaching actually is. And take this as gospel — the system can only be changed if the real brains are put to work.

Yes, we need doctors who could treat patients in hospitals. Yes, we need engineers so that we could run electrical appliances and travel on metalled roads. Yes, we need economists to define our social dynamics and dimensions. Yes, we need lawyers to provide justice to innocent and convict the criminals. Surely, we need bureaucrats to run our establishments and countries. However, we also need teachers who could tame, train and build these professionals for all societies and civilisations. We should not forget, after all, that people from almost all disciplines around the globe collectively venerate Aristotle, Plato and Socrates, while Charles Babbage and Albert Einstein are usually commemorated by scientists belonging to those specific fields.

To quote Aristotle: “The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching.”