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Need for serious planning in technical education

Outline:

1)      Introduction

2)      Problems of Pakistan in technical education
i)                    Low allocation of GDP to education and especially to technical education
ii)                   Lack of competent technical institutes and teachers
iii)                 Theory-based education
iv)                 Lack of availability of equipment
v)                  Lack of FDI
vi)                 Non-involvement of domestic investors
vii)               Brain drain
viii)              Non-involvement of foreign teachers
ix)                 Lack of refresher courses for teachers
x)                  Mindset

3)      Bad effects of scarcity of  technical education on national economy
i)                    Industrial backwardness
ii)                   Unemployment
iii)                 Increase in imports and decrease in imports
iv)                 Reliance on others and lack of political freedom
v)                  Even defense use to be at stake

4)      Steps need to be taken to improve in technical education
i)                    Balanced allocation of budget to the economy
ii)                   Focusing both domestic and foreign investors
iii)                 Involving the skilled workers to stop outflow
iv)                 Governments authorities and institutes should be made competent
v)                  Proper checks and balances on private institutes
vi)                 Public-Private partnership
vii)               An end to theory-based education
viii)              Refresher courses
ix)                 Involvement of foreign technical experts
x)                  Changing the mindset via media
xi)                 peace

5)      Effects of better skilled labor
i)                    Will increase industrial base by exploring new avenues and utilizing the existing infrastructure
ii)                   Massive improvement in the lives of people
iii)                 Will increase exports vis-à-vis exports
iv)                 Utilization of natural wealth
v)                  Valuable foreign exchange reserves
vi)                 Less foreign dictations and reliance
vii)               Defense production at ease

6)      Conclusion
Student involved in technical work


Technical education is basically the teaching and acquiring of skills which are deemed necessary to do a particular task or job. Pakistan allocates a meager 2.8 percent of the total budget to the education sector of which a small amount is dedicated to the technical education. This low allocation of money has not allowed us to develop a pool of skilled workers who can then become a stimulus for the industrial revolution.  Though one may argue that the expansion of technical institutes to the far-flung areas of the country with the help of private sector is catering much of our requirement in terms of skilled labor yet this has not been to a level which can change the overall landscape of the slow economic development.

Pakistan is the sixth largest populous country in the world but has not been at par with regional competitors in terms of technically sound manpower even though most of these countries are less-populated compared to Pakistan. There are many reasons for this backwardness but the core reason is the non-seriousness of the government towards this all-important sector. The government has allocated not more than 2.8 percent for education in the previous budget of which a small portion goes towards the technical education.

The lack of availability of economic resources has resulted in the establishment of institutes with almost no technical equipment and incompetent teachers. The private sector institutes are though making a huge amount of fees but not focusing on the availability of material equipment. The incompetent teachers in these institutes and especially in the government institutes have resulted in the production of students who don’t have the know-how of the industry trends. Theory-dominated courses have also proved to be counter-productive; most of the students getting degrees even from the most expensive institutes don’t have practical experience.

The government has also failed to attract both foreign and domestic investors to invest in this sector. The main reasons are the shortage of electricity, bad law, and order situation, bureaucratic hurdles, and huge taxation. New industries are not being established and skilled labor has not been given the chance to exploit their technical skills. This lack of employment opportunities has caused a massive flight of the skilled labor to the European and Gulf countries. This has also resulted in the economic boom in the developed countries at the expense of the third world countries.

Another major problem is the backwardness of our skilled labor compared to the regional and global competitors. Most of the skills labor is not acquainted with the modern technical methods and thus cannot compete with the highly trained skilled labor of other countries. This lack of technological advancement can be attributed to the non-involvement of domestic and foreign experts in this field. No refresher courses are given to the teachers teaching in the technical institutes and thus they remain stuck in their old and conventional technical methods.

The scarcity of skilled labor in our country has also to do with the wages and societal mindset. Skilled labor is paid meagerly compared to other professions. This has diverted the minds in the direction of desk jobs that use to be easy and economically beneficial. The Society also hardly pays any respect to the technical experts and expertise. This is also a reason that most of the people do not like to go towards this field, instead, they opt for fields which earn high respect.

Lack of skilled labor adversely affects the industrial structure of a country and has been the case with us. The conventional industries that used to be the backbone of our economy are no longer in competitiveness with regional rivals. New industries have not been established because of non-availability of modern machinery and technically sound skilled labor. The ultimate result has been in the form of unemployment at a massive level and huge decrease in the exports vis-à-vis imports. The huge budget deficit due to the disparity in the exports and imports has destroyed the very basis of our national economy.

The financial debt has prompted us to go to IMF for bailout packages. This has severely hampered the political and economic freedom of our country and has resulted in the withdrawal of subsidies and rise of prices of common goods. Even the highly sensitive sector of defense has been under the shadow of low budget and lack of modern technical manpower. The low availability of funds for law enforcement agencies has badly affected the ability of the state to take on the menace of terrorism. Similarly, the lack of technical skills can also affect our defense production base if not given due attention.

In order to cope with the scarcity of skilled labor and the negative impacts of it on the economy, the government needs to take some steps. The first major step will be the balanced allocation of budget to all the sectors of the economy and this means further emphasis should be given to education. The current ratio of GDP dedicated to education is nowhere at par with the modern standards. The matter of more serious concern is that only a little of this is given to the technical education of which almost 70 percent goes to the payment of salaries and corruption. Foreign and local investors should also be made part of the drive to provide the youth with skills.

This will not only become a source of income for them and their families but will stop the drainage of some excellent minds from the country.

Though the expansion of institutes to the local areas is a good indicator yet the lack of competent teachers and proper equipment is a major drawback. The government should provide highly qualified teachers and proper laboratory equipment to give the students the opportunity to have a hand on experience. Proper checks and balances should also be kept on private institutes to monitor their education standard and availability of equipment. Public-private partnership for this purpose can prove to be phenomenally helpful.

The government should also move on towards putting an end to the theory dominated education. The technical and vocational institutes should be made responsible to give practical experience to the students to accustom them with the technical procedures and operations. The involvement of foreign experts in training the teachers, students and most importantly in policy making should be made part of our efforts. The refresher courses with the help of foreign and local experts will also be quite helpful for the teachers to move along with the trends of the time.

The government should pay high salaries to the technical crews of departments and the private sector should also be brought under these regulations. This will motivate more young minds to pursue careers in the technology sector rather than striving for desk jobs. The society also needs to give high respect to the technical experts who carry important tasks for them and media should also play its due role to raise awareness among masses. Lastly, the peace should also be restored to provide an environment to flourish business activities.

The availability of modernized and competent skilled labor will not only prove to be the catalyst for our conventional industrial but will also help in exploring new avenues that can earn huge profits. The increase in business activities will also provide jobs to millions of people across the country and will thus improve the life standard of the people. The rise in exports from both traditional and new industries will also help increase the all-important foreign exchange reserves which can then be used for other sectors. The availability of skilled labor will also help to explore our natural resources that are mostly lying untapped or being exploited by the foreign consortiums.

The better economic condition of the country will ultimately make us more independent of the foreign agenda and influence. This will also help us to depend on our resources instead of going to IMF with strict conditions, which fall like bombs on the poor sections of the society. The defense production is also to the technical expertise of the labor and thus this sector will grow at a massive speed, safeguarding our borders and exporting defense equipment.

Education is the need of the time and we have to focus on it in order to progress but the highly ignored and most important part of the education is the technical education. If we want to be independent in our foreign policy and reliant on our resources then we have to self-reliant in the availability of technical manpower. This is evident from the history of World War 1 and World War 2 where the better technically skilled allied powers beat the less technically sound Germans.











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