DailyPost 339
DEGREES /DIPLOMAS/CERTIFICATIONS
The craze for acquiring one degree after another other does not end in this country. The certifications start once you get into a professional career. Even at later stages in life we find lots of professionals getting into all sorts of degrees & certifications mostly unconnected with the professional areas they are working in or aspire to gain expertise in, if any. Today, we have one of the largest the technical manpower, with an output which is not even a shade, of what real technical manpower of this size can create.
The mystique of degrees has a historical lineage; the direct connect between degrees & the jobs. And related financial perks & a cozy life. Degree was presumed to be synonymous with knowledge, though there are no researches to indicate the same. The mystique still continues even with the proliferation of substandard institutions all around. The disconnect between the degrees and even a livable job is becoming so conspicuous. Most government jobs advertised today attract supposedly too overqualified candidates.
Whether relevant knowledge & skills was our endeavor or a degree by hook or by crook. The degree awarding machines to prove themselves right are out to gift best possible grades for whatever it’s worth. After all, it’s a trade in a country so richly endowed with degrees, still having an insatiable hunger for it. A study of unused or underused degrees can be an eyeopener. This suicidal connection needs to be broken. The degree holder is in perpetual search of his worth. It is undoubtedly a waste of national resources, the educational infrastructure, productive time and an unwarranted trajectory for the country.
Some unholy nexus supports this urge. Who validates the courses, curriculum, content, teaching to the requirements? Why it has failed completely on the touchstone of the dynamic changes of the day? Not understanding the disconnect is leading to crisis of aspirations, not a welcome sign for a country with a huge youth population.
WHAT YOU CAN DO WELL, IS WHAT YOU KNOW.
Sanjay Sahay