There have been many observations made by various stakeholders regarding the skills and competence of fresh graduates coming out of universities and institutions of higher learning. Along with his or her communication skills, a young engineer is tested for abilities related to quantitative competence and knowledge about the systems and processes pertinent to production and delivery in a respective branch of industry.

A medical doctor is often questioned for diagnostic performance, managing tasks in wards, awareness about available options around prescriptions and more. Graduates in sciences, commerce, languages and arts have similar grading patterns for suitability to take on real life challenges. More often than not, there is a strong tone of criticism heard in semi-formal conversations about the limited abilities of such graduates, blaming the institutions, parents and the system of education for the mismatch between expectations and outputs. This dimension of our younger human resource needs a more focused appraisal.

Capacity building and attainment of skills is a layered enterprise that progresses gradually with the passage of time across age brackets of young people. Many stakeholders, directly and indirectly, contribute to this social build. The choice of schooling has a core importance in this sequence. If the young mind has been through a sound system of schooling where a balanced curriculum has been delivered, effective assessments held and physical and intellectual talents harnessed through appropriate activities, chances are very bright that the young teenagers passing out from such schools would do well in the next levels of education as well as in their professional lives.

In contrast, if the school does not prepare the pupils well in language abilities, quantitative skills and other vital pursuits, it would only make the above average students augur well at their next level of education depending upon the individual level of hard work and eagerness to learn.

Parental supervision, home environment and family values act as silent catalysts in the grooming of the child. In many cases, the scale and proportion of mentoring, both by family elders and surrounding environment, play a significant role in sharpening or dampening cumulative capacities of young people.

Most schools are expensive and only accessible to the upper crust of society. In terms of the social value system, our society has now subscribed to a culture of affluence with more emphasis on consumerism and commoditisation of even social pursuits — education and training being one of them. Thus it is commonly believed that all the educational and grooming needs of the young souls would be addressed by sending the children to elite schools and expensive tuition centres.

A fall in parental and family attention often results in the inability of young people to holistically acquire and absorb the value system needed to subscribe to educational excellence of the desirable kind. Thus, while grades and score cards depict a sound attainment, the confidence and application that only comes from effective and continuous mentoring is found absent in otherwise achievers. In the case of pupils belonging to the lower and middle class, the normal shortcomings are deficiencies in language skills (both Urdu and English), poor comprehension, lack of general knowledge and limited communication and presentation abilities.

Company and surrounding environment also plays a role. If a student attends a good school but spends a bulk of his time fooling around with friends in upstart circles with no parental checks, it is likely that he would not do well in practical life on his own. In contrast, children from less privileged backgrounds have a sizable possibility of getting entrapped in bad company of quasi-criminal tendencies in low income precincts. They may not spend the rightful time and effort needed to upscale their vital skills. Etiquettes of interaction, dining, dressing/attire, speech and other basic elements of daily life will hardly dawn upon such young folks due to lack of exposure and conduct. It is one reason that we commonly find very few young people appropriately conducting themselves in public with decency and dignity. Needless to say that self bearing and presentation is a crucial denominator in virtually all aspects of public and professional life.

There is a visible need to focus on this aspect of skills and performance in a collective manner by different stakeholders. Educational institutions can devise modules in language skills, comprehension, quantitative subjects and general knowledge. While we live in an information age, the level of general knowledge amongst ordinary children and young people needs an enormous effort of shoring up. Concerned non-governmental organisations and support groups may consider devising ways and means through which such modules and programmes could be imparted with a special focus on schools in less privileged locations. Dedicated programmes of various sorts can be designed and aired by media groups as a social service. And in the same vein, the entertainment producers could be sensitised to underpin their productions with an objective of communicating values, etiquettes and messages in the same direction.

After all, ensuring a healthy and competent new generation is our collective social responsibility.

The writer is professor and chairman, Department of Architecture and Planning, NED University, Karachi.