Shoutbox » Help Me Doctor
“I have a PhD in agriculture, an MBA in Finance, 12 years' work experience as finance officer for a host of INGOs, 3 of those years were abroad, a 5 page publication list, 2 of those pages are articles in international journals. I am desperate for work, willing to consult on short-term contracts, anywhere in Asia. Please leave me on your consultancy list.”
Or words to that effect.
It is incredible how many people in Nepal have PhDs, MBAs and Master’s degrees. And it is even more staggering that many of them are struggling to make a secure living.
This reality is further evidence of the dangers of an over-expansion in education without a complementary expansion of opportunities for the educated. I relate this to the African post-independence experience:
From 1957 onwards, newly independent African states embarked on ambitious fast-track development agendas. Central to these plans was the rapid education of its citizens. Enormous educational expansion brought steep rises in school enrolment, attendance and graduation. Literacy and numeracy rates rose sharply, and knock-on impacts were felt everywhere where better education plays a role in outcomes, leading for example to declines in fertility rates and the prevalence of hygiene-related illnesses.
But as more people went to school, expectations of work opportunities grew, nearly always faster than the supply of opportunities for the educated. In part to avoid having a large disgruntled educated tranche of the population, many countries guaranteed university graduates employment in the government and in state-owned companies. Many commentators agree that this was a large contributor to the over-sized, wasteful and inefficient governments and state-owned enterprises in Africa that emerged between the 60s and 80s.
Back to Nepal, and what I see is another impact of education levels outpacing work opportunity. The bar keeps being raised: If for every decent graduate-level job that is made available in Nepal, there are ten suitably qualified Nepalis, then recruiters will obviously look for ways of differentiating applicants. So those with higher degrees will more likely secure the jobs, leaving others, less but still adequately qualified, behind. Over time, having a bachelor’s degree becomes the standard and a master’s is required differentiate oneself.
What is staggering is that increasingly in Nepal, the process has gone a step further. At the moment I work for a development consultancy firm, connecting well qualified and experienced individuals in South Asia to technical development contract work. And the simple truth is, if you don’t have a PhD, you’re not likely to get a call from us.
The impact of this momentum can be devastating. In Nepal parents commit large amounts of their assets, or become heavily debt-ridden to send their children to what they deem are the best private schools and further education colleges. Education in Nepal has become big business, exploiting the hopes and aspirations of students and parents who believe that a further qualification will make them more employable and offer a path out of poverty. But when this path involves two years of ‘sixth form’, four years of bachelor’s, at least two further years of master’s, may keep winding after that, and still does not always offer the promised prize at the end, the whole institution of further education reveals itself to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Posted By Alexis on Thursday 4th February 2010 a 11:21am
2 Shoutbacks Made
6th Feb 10 @ 07:41amShouted By Sam
Inflation of degrees is a very challenging issue - it is often caused by this Chicago style (or what I refer to as) Sachs economics where the belief is that if you invest in education and infrastructure economic growth will come by itself.
What often happens is what happened here in the UK when they first introduced educational reform here in the UK (and saw education as a way to alleviate the social problems and facilitate for growth) - which is that the people that previously were unemployed and angry are now unemployed, educated, and even more angry.
10th Feb 10 @ 10:14amShouted By Rachel Schofield
Thank Alexis - this is such an interesting shout!
It also reminds of Zimbabwe - at one time it had the best universities and education systems in Africa - but a focus on that at the expense of infrastructure and the economy led to a huge brain-drain as many educated people left Zimbabwe for places like the UK and South Africa to find better employment prospects. Years of oppression and instability mean that these economic migrants have not returned and it is hard to imagine a successful comeback by Zimbabwe without them.
In a sense this is what we're trying to do at UYDO - focus on using the education and skills that young people have in sub-Saharan Africa and trying to help them channel that into an income for themselves and their families. Looking at our entrepreneurs in Kenya, I was initially surprised that many of them had degrees - but if degrees cannot be used productively and lead to employment, many young people will do just what our entrepreneurs are trying to do - create their own prospects and take themselves out of poverty.
