A beacon of hope, a sign of inclusivity, the apparatus behind progress and a resilient force to drive development, the youth is celebrated in almost all countries. However, Pakistan remains reluctant to embrace this asset and pays no heed to their aspirations, falls short of providing basic necessities required for growth and has historically been incompetent to craft policies academically beneficial for the young population. What is more disheartening is that the reluctance to embrace and the incompetence of crafting youth-centric policies remains.
To make the youth gravitate to compete against the global market requires a highly polished curriculum and trained teachers to transfer what is in the curriculum. Facilitating freelancers to leverage the economy and producing a skills-oriented education and environment from the beginning are the short-term and long-term incentives the policymakers can adopt for a brighter future
Accommodating 64 percent youth (out of the total population) must have been a figure of pride with 29 percent aged between 15 to 29, though, Pakistan has, thus far, not been able to realize the potential they are blessed with. Ironically, the youth isn’t satisfied with being youth in the country given the absence of apparatus that bestows a robust academic background. As a result, pursuing a career remains an alien concept, and academic growth a vague term.
Imagine a force biologically resilient, psychologically determined and physically assiduous working for a nation without any regret to rest. Would that nation not be counted in as a developed one? Is that force not capable of turning the fortune of a nation? And the answer has historically been positive. Notwithstanding, the land of the pure neglects their potential and, thus, negates the progress since a river cannot be crossed without a sail.
Youth, in itself, is a paragon of progress. The policies, the wherewithal and the policymakers are to blame given their incapability to hone the potential. The youth lives in a depressed environment. The thicker clouds of blues incessantly surrounds upon, leaving the talented, potentialized, and capable just to be reduced to indigenous work with minimal wages. In other words, the agony has a close relationship with youth and ecstasy remains a vigilant foe. Even with that bad state of affairs, there’s a hope within, and an itch of progress remains.
Neither a top-down, nor a bottom-up modus operandi has been in operation to pull the youth from the quagmire of lack of skill. IT, freelancing, entrepreneurship and cooperative operations are yet to be touched by this youth in proper manner, though a single digit percentage of individuals have already been occupied with the mentioned professions.
The very ground to polish and hone the potentialities has been missing given the obsolete curriculum, teacher’s absenteeism, modern skills exclusion, and willing omission of contemporary in-demand crafts. With obsolete skills, out-dated knowledge and inadequate experience they enter the job market, and nothing but low paid nine-to-five vacancies are vacant with ‘do or sit home’ options. Good pay, low workload, higher positions are crowned to the highest bidders, and if, by any chance, some vacancies escape, retired military officers jump in for an extra source of income. The deserving youth alternatively tries hard to sail to a land with good income, adequate working hours and equal playing field.
Successive political set-ups have successfully failed to facilitate the freelancers who leverage the economy, notwithstanding the crippled education system with irrelevant syllabi, let alone the overall youth of the country. The governmental negligence is apparent since millions of Pakistanis are becoming part of the ‘diaspora’ every year. Labour, professionals and even PhD holders prefer a foreign air to breathe.
The inability to xerox foreign curricula into native, corrupt hierarchical surveillance mechanisms, a dwindling annual education budget, merit negation, bid promotion in recruitment processes, testing services ‘behind the door’ heist remains an unknown that further exacerbates the situation. The youth, amid all, gets gridlocked. No space to move except to suffer in silence.
The ephemeral motivational quotations like ‘never give up’ are valid provided there’s a short-lived economic or political, or social crisis before the youth to excel. However, a handcuffed person thrown into a desert of despair and instructed to ‘never give up’ would be highly unlikely to work. Unsurprisingly, the country’s youth is akin to that handcuffed person thrown into the desert with the same words.
With the current curriculum, education system, hierarchical surveillance mechanism, merit negation, bid promotion and recruitment heists behind closed doors, it is highly unlikely Pakistani youth could survive against the global competition and ergo, Pakistan’s socio-economic and political crisis will be here to stay. Larger-than-life crises will get even larger unless the youth of the country comes to the rescue.
The sole way to progress in this evolving world is to empower the youth. In-demand skills, adequate tools, proper training campaigns, trained teacher’s tutoring are a few necessities to pull the youth from the current abysmal circumstances.
To make the youth gravitate to compete against the global market requires a highly polished curriculum and trained teachers to transfer what is in the curriculum. Facilitating freelancers to leverage the economy and producing a skills-oriented education and environment from the beginning are the short-term and long-term incentives the policymakers can adopt for a brighter future.
