Student a sandwich between the education system and the employment sector.

Ubaid Qureshi;

Islamabad: Secretary General Youth Parliament, Ubaid Qureshi said: The student faces lots of problems from grade one till graduation and gets little reward. Educational institutions teach Oxford and MIT level syllabus but take job test on the pattern of an English test. Engineering students study their subjects, 9 to 5 and come face to face with the challenging midterm and final exams. Live a very difficult life for 8 – 10 semesters in 4 years. They work hard to get high CGPA to the point where they don’t get time to visit their families and relatives. Parents pay exorbitant university fees. Daily assignments and projects end up being more expensive than a whole semester’s fee but after graduation, when the students are entering their professional fields they are treated like prisoners released from a Jail. First question asked by the interview team is about Experience. How can a fresh graduate have previous experience of the job? Even if they luck out and get a job, they are treated as laborers or volunteers. Engineering and Medical Councils make their criteria more and more strict everyday but what kind of benefit is provided to the student? They do it only for the sake of their name in order to show that they are doing something. Government Jobs are based upon NTS the so called “true free and fair system”. No one pays attention towards the pattern of the test. Only 20-30% of the questions are based upon the respective field, while in sub major department every field has different areas of interest this 30% further sub gets divided into 5-10%. Now only 10% questions related to the respective field of study which was taught by the so called world famous and renowned educational institutions remain left. 90% NTS material is related to pure English. Isn’t it better to study English in an English language institute for 6-10months rather than wasting 4 years trying to learn the arts of engineering and medicine? Unfortunately if a student cannot pass NTS even if he has a high CGPA he cannot get admission for higher studies, and is definitely kicked out from the jobs. Now the question is that if a student can’t pass NTS then what have the highly ranked and strict merit following universities delivered in the period of 4 years? How has he passed his semester exams? No one is ready to take responsibility, every institute claims that they have strict merit policy both the universities and the NTS department. Only one person suffers in between this merit systems known as the “Graduate Student” who is a victim of extra pressure from their society as well – since he is jobless. It’s very easy to get admission in foreign universities on the basis of your research and coursework abilities. No one asks from you for experience or makes you undergo any verbal test. Pakistan has a strong friendship with China, but is not willing to follow their educational policies. 4 Chinese universities are among the top 100 universities of the world, their medium of teaching is their native language “Chinese” not English, even international students have to get Chinese education before taking admission in their universities. Another dilemma of our education policy is that, our job selection criteria is based upon the Oxford level English test (NTS) but our official language is “Urdu”. We are a great nation which studies MIT level technological research based education through Strict rules and regulations starting from dressing to the exam timing but gives tests on the basis of experience which we get from a Matriculate company owner and the student gets a job only after passing the Oxford level English test even if the only language he will be using on the field is “Urdu”. Long live Pakistan’s education system.