Daniel C Sampayo
A wise man once said if you fail to plan you plan to fail. No one in the government can be able to answer what is the root cause of unemployment. The reason behind it is not a mystery. It has to do with lack of planning.
As youth, our nation wants us to be educated and then pursue a vast number of careers. Finally, reaching the very end of the career, the reward of one’s hard work ought to be rewarded with a job and then life goes on. Unfortunately, during the struggle of school, the other party sits idle waiting for the final year students to graduate.
Forgetting there is a task at hand, which was supposed to be done by them (government) – creating the job market for these fresh graduates. The result is that when the celebration is over, these new graduates are left on their own – in the streets and the leaders sit back and watch them struggle helplessly.
Numbers don’t lie. The number of graduates in the streets is growing each year. A coin has three sides: the head, tail and edge. A wise leader is one who sits on the edge and looks at both sides of the coin. Why build more schools for students to enroll, while the job market for these students is shrinking? Of course, for those in business, it is a bonanza – money is going into their pockets.
The lesson was supposed to be learned looking at the once popular promising profession in the country – teaching. Years back, no teaching graduates could sit at home after graduating.
Recently, the profession attracted hundreds of students but the outcome has changed. It now dumps hundreds of graduates onto the streets.
The next crisis happening in front of our eyes is of nursing. Today, most students are flocking into nursing due to the availability of jobs in this area. What we fail to realise and see is that history is repeating itself. This nursing profession is getting bigger, yet the job market is not expanding.
With three or four different uniforms worn by students from different institutions doing their practicals in the same hospital and clinics, I can predict that in five years time, they will be run over by the very same invincible giant called “unemployment”.
Take action
Our leaders should plan on how the crisis can be solved. One way is to look at both sides of the coin. While students are pursuing their careers, the government should also expand the job market for these students simultaneously.
Training students for no future is a painful act. This crisis will never be solved verbally. Action is needed in due course. Albert Einstein once said, “You can’t solve the problem with the same consciousness that created it.” It’s about time the government took action in this ongoing crisis.
How the crisis affects the masses
Failure in looking at matters from the core point is the reason why daily newspapers are flooded with dreadful and catastrophic events such as poverty, youth rebellion, theft, suicides, violence, rape, murder, anxiety, economic upheavals, high rate of diseases, teenage pregnancy and so on. A hungry man is an angry man.
Today, the knowledge of graduates is being emptied out with depression and anxiety. Similarly, learners in schools are hopeless about the importance of education. They are raising questions such as if my brother and sister are educated, why are they suffering at home? This is increasing hopelessness and failure in schools. Not to mention poor parents who are spending thousands of dollars, taking debt and finishing their livestock to pay for interview trips where over a hundred graduates compete for one vacancy each time.
“Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat its mistakes.”