This is a scathing attack on the state of education in our country, when 255 PhD’s and another 25,000 Masters degree holders apply for jobs as peons. We must bow our heads in shame and disgust. It appears that the degrees they hold are not worth the paper they are written on.
We all are aware that the employment situation is bad. But it never ever crossed my mind that it is such a major disaster. Let’s examine why over qualified candidates are applying for the lowly positions, when they could actually be applying for senior positions?
Is it really because there are no senior vacancies? Is it perhaps due the quality of the degrees of those acquiring Doctorate and Masters degrees? Is it because the candidates have passed out from non-recognized Universities? Is it perhaps due to the subjects/specialities the students have chosen?
The other questions that need to be addressed are: Do we really need peons in the current electronic and paperless office age? We have smartphones, e-mails, ipads, what’s app etc. We have files stacked up on the computer and in our electronic archives, we have coffee and tea making machines, we have scanning and photocopying machines. Is it that peons are needed to act as decoys to collect bribes from customers? Or to tell people that the boss is busy, please come tomorrow and them on the morrow repeat this to the caller until he is politely told that if he does not pay up, his matter would be delayed indefinitely?
It is time for a thorough investigation on this most unusual phenomena. There is need to study the reasons why highly qualified candidates choose to apply for the lowest category of jobs. There is need to study why the British Raj system of peons still exists.
On the one hand we are talking of skilling India, Make in India and on the other we remain totally bereft of ideas of how to make education and employment compatible at all levels.
Do we think we would be able to sustain the requirement of foreign company needs of skilled manpower, when they decide to setup base in our country? These foreign companies are used to a high level of skills among their people at all levels. If they do not get the skill level they need at different levels in India would they then, recruit people from their own countries to work here? Would they ever consider employing our highly qualified people in junior positions? This is un-professional HR practice anyway, if they do. Assuming they do, they will, be criticized, cause we will then accuse them of exploiting our people .
The question is when are we going to see reality? Is the rote method of education viable any longer? When are we going to have student counsellors to guide students to take up careers where the students have good aptitude in, and are also conscious of the needs of the employment market? When are we going to bar Universities and Colleges that exist and enroll students though they are not recognized? When are we going to re-skill our teachers so they use modern methods of education?
If the government is serious about Make in India then it is time our ministers concentrate on quality of education and compatibility with industry rather than pandering to the needs of the die-hard fundamentalist. Our Prime Minister wants to vie with the leading nations of the world. We cannot have a global outlook and a parochial/bigoted mind set. Wake up India, we have the highest number of people in the world in ages below 30. Let us not lose that advantage, it is now or never.
