To understand the impact that the ‘smart’ gadgets and internet have made globally, one has to look at the professions that didn’t exist 15-20 years ago but are very popular among the masses today. For instance, if you had placed a job advertisement for ‘Social Media Manager’ or ‘Digital Marketer’ back in 2000, chances are that you would have received zero responses or very little, if at all. And, in the first place, why would you have thought of placing such an advertisement?

The boom in technology meant that the world suddenly became interconnected. You no longer needed expensive calling cards to make local or international calls. With a few taps on the phone, you were able to send free text messages and make phone calls using mobile applications like WhatsApp and Viber etc. And as more and more people signed up on various social media platforms, businesses thought it was a golden opportunity for them to pitch their products to the masses without risking much.

In short, the methodology of marketing changed from traditional to digital without people even realising it. Companies that would need hundreds of salesmen going door-to-door to sell their products, were now looking at a few people who could set up a digital footprint for them, thereby decreasing the costs and increasing the footfall – or eyeballs – thus giving birth to a whole new profession called ‘digital marketing’.

Students in Pakistan have no way of taking up digital marketing as a degree course because no university offers such a degree. This is despite the fact that it is a hugely popular profession in the country.

Pakistan, like any other country, too lapped up the opportunity and became host to hundreds and thousands of ‘Creative Agencies’ – as against the ‘advertising agencies’ – that claimed to be experts in providing digital services. The unanticipated surge in such companies meant that many people from all walks of life took a well-thought-out decision of switching their careers. Why? Because digital marketing offered good money. But did most of them have professional qualification to be called ‘digital marketers’? No.

One then wonders why, despite being hugely popular in the country, digital marketing is not being offered as a degree course by Pakistani universities. According to Muhammad Saleem Ahrar, Associate Vice-President of Marketing at Gaditek, there is a lack of awareness among both the people and the universities with regards to the coveted profession.

“There is very less awareness about digital marketing in our society because the parents have no idea what it is. And since they have zero knowledge, they do not encourage their kids to take up this field,” observes Saleem. He attributes this lack of awareness to the fact that most of the students blindly do what their parents or guardians ask them to do, and not do their own research.

“When I was looking for academic courses, a family friend advised me to do BSc. Another recommended me to do CA. I said ‘no’ to both because I knew that I couldn’t do either of them,” he recalls.

According to Saleem, the students are now pursuing higher education merely for the purpose of getting a job and not for educating themselves which is resulting in lesser productivity. “The problem runs deeper than you think. People know how to use costly cell phones, but they deliberately choose to remain uninterested in the fact that they could make good amount of money off social platforms like Facebook and Youtube,” he adds.

He points out that people are using TikTok, a video-sharing social networking service, to their own advantage and are raking in approximately $35,000 for a 60-second clip whereas people in Pakistan are mostly using it to show off their ‘dancing’ abilities.

“Poor mentoring is also another factor that is hampering the academic growth of this field in Pakistan. If, by chance, someone learns a skill or two, he will start selling it straightaway to the students for as low as Rs.5000,” he remarks.

Saleem, also being an academician, admits that university lobbies are much stronger than one thinks. “The ‘traditional marketers’ are usually reluctant to accept digital marketing as a genuine field. “I tried pitching the idea of teaching digital marketing as an elective to more than three universities and all of them rejected the proposal,” he regrets.

Saleem was told by the respective managements that the students won’t be interested in taking the course. This was a perception that the managements concerned did not even think about checking out with their students. He believes that this reluctance of universities is a direct result of the wrong impression of digital marketing that has been created in Pakistan. “People, for some reason, believe that digital marketing is limited to Facebook marketing. No, it is much, much bigger than that! There are ‘Creative Agencies’ operating here on the same model of bringing in leads from Facebook only and calling it digital marketing,” he asserts.

Every month 12,000 people search the term ‘digital marketing’ in Pakistan. And, as Saleem points out, the amalgamation of different fields and digital marketing results in more refined content for the users. “Explore as much as possible because digital marketing, unlike what many believe, is a vast field. If you know the ins and outs of your skill, you won’t be exploited by digital marketing agencies,” he advises.

Syed Nawfil Rahim, Agile Manager at the same firm as Saleem, believes the problem lies at both ends, but maintains that the poor ecosystem is to be blamed for below par output. “If you talk about the ecosystem, the people who are designing the curriculum lack the appropriate exposure. For example, the students abroad are usually given complex tasks, like finding out what went wrong with Facebook servers when it faced the downtime globally,” says Nawfil.

He agrees with Saleem and says that the students have no awareness when it comes to digital marketing. “Unfortunately, our students have zero sense of self-learning. They would rather watch Netflix for hours instead of learning things that might help them ahead in their career,” adds Nawfil. He believes that there is zero progress in digital academics because the students are not challenging their teachers by asking them tricky questions.

Nawfil is of the opinion that even if the Pakistani universities were to offer a degree in digital marketing, it would be of no use to the students if it is not in line with the current and evolving trends of the industry.

Usman Ahmed Khan, Associate Community Manager at Nanosoft Technologies, notes that digital marketing is being offered as a degree course in many universities in the UK. “The universities are charging more than £24,000 in the UK. The students are actually paying a handsome amount which speaks volumes about its demand,” says Usman.

He wouldn’t have flinched, he says, had he been given an option to get a degree in digital marketing back in the day. Unfortunately, for many passionate digital marketers who did their degree in other disciplines, nothing can be done now except for hoping that a well-thought-out curriculum would be devised and implemented soon.

The older generation will also have to realise that the world doesn’t revolve around doctors and engineers anymore. “No offence to anyone, but that is the truth”. Perhaps, it will take Pakistan one more generation before the real change in the perception sets in.

Spending time as a student among an incredible variety of cultural backgrounds, languages, fashion and attitudes causes one to appreciate not just interpersonal differences but also the baggage of societal upbringing that tags along with it.

It brings an exposure to the host country and the countries of those interacting with you, which is incomplete without a keen personal connection to the individual. So how does this multi-faceted interaction manifest into personality traits, and what exactly are those characteristics which everyone talks about?

For undergraduate students who have not had the exposure outside of their homeland, the prospect of being alone, independent and communicative solely in a completely new place does seem daunting initially. However, these students take strides in self-confidence while dealing with fellow international students, teachers and even bureaucrats.

Hamza, who studies in The Netherlands, describes an experience of watching students debate fiercely with their professors, something that would be deemed disrespectful in a traditional setup. “I have become more confident and upfront. The Dutch really value that,” he says.

Researches have confirmed that self-confidence also develops as a result of feeling independent, which, in turn, stems from a variety of factors. Seemingly trivial things like housework, cooking, doing the laundry, and slightly complicated functions like financial budgeting, planning and timing routes in public transport, all develop a sense of responsibility and independence which is further cemented as students draw lessons from their mistakes.

When one is faced with a climate that is different from what they were initially conditioned with, it becomes an exercise of comparing the present with the past. This might result in the famous ‘culture shock’ phenomenon.

Exposure to cross-cultural setups goes way beyond the domain of mere academic qualifications.

On this notion, Hamza comes to terms with individualism, which is rarely cultivated back home, stating: “I come from a culture where you don’t always say what you mean in order to spare others of feeling embarrassed or to avoid hurting feelings. It is normal to be economical with truth, especially when dealing with adults”.

However, the Dutch, as individuals, have an upbringing that is in stark contrast. “I have come to realise that the Dutch are very direct and this has led to situations in which I felt like someone had taken offence to what I was saying, when the fact was that they were just being extremely direct as it is in their culture to do so,” he says. Thankfully, there is a way around when you are trying to contend with these differences while staying true to your roots.

Komal, who is a first-year student in the US, states: “It is a different environment since you are not answerable to anyone for your actions. As such, it is important to constantly self-evaluate and have conversations with yourself to stay grounded.”

It is evident from both these experiences that our perspectives could not be challenged in a better way. In moments like these, the need to stay close to our families at heart and seeking their reassurances is more apparent than ever. “It was definitely tough when I missed my family and friends, but it is important to constantly communicate with the best people in your life,” advises Komal.

As much as the experience might be overwhelming, students recall anecdotes with a sense of accomplishment at having a chance to test themselves and thus advance their emotional resilience. According to research, this corresponds with an increase in psychological well-being and self-satisfaction once the culture shock has passed.

It is interesting that studying in another country can result in an increase in the students’ appreciation of arts, history and literature, as shown by studies. European countries, such as England, France, Italy and Spain, open their doors to monuments, artworks and spaces that have witnessed and depicted centuries of historical advancements which changed the world.

In some cases, students have sought international study as a means to channel their fascination surrounding the culture of the host country. This broadens the lens through which they may go on to evaluate social and cultural conflicts back home.

Additionally, students develop an awareness of the host country’s governmental and economic policies, political climate and even social hierarchies in a process that involves not just necessary coursework but interpersonal relations too.

Being surrounded with individuals having different origins is bound to make one an inquisitive conversation starter in an international setting which goes on to develop open-mindedness.

On the flipside, the notion of ‘reverse culture shock’ is certainly legitimate. Students come back home with a somewhat alien feeling about what they left behind, and find their newfound liberal values questioning widely-held beliefs which tend to propagate misinformation and ignorance.

However, this is beneficial for social change, and individuals with cross-culture exposure possess an ability to bring that about. And so with all these priceless aspects of personal development having been established, is there really any reservation on whether studying abroad is worth its while?

Researches conducted over decades, and individual accounts stand testimony to the fact that there would be nothing better than going abroad and having exposure to cross-cultural interactions.

Some seek the unthinkable journey with smugglers; land routes lead to Europe, while with the sea it is to the Gulf countries. For others though, the journey is more in line with the legal requirements and leads to a future more in line with values tagged to a degree. For this, the students have to make a lot of effort. Get your documents in place … find the right place of learning … hope to get the visa for the country on the basis of your admission … and then plan how to get the money to pay off the student loan that you took to go and study abroad.

An important part of the documentation that you gather for the admission is the IELTS test result. Let us suppose there are those in the audience who (somehow!) don’t know what I am talking about. This is an international test for English proficiency that everyone willing to go abroad, legally, has to take.

By going abroad, I mean, for education, work and even immigration. For more details, you can always Google. There is the education and the general IELTS tests. There is a little difference in the marking but, overall, things are the same.

Giving IELTS is not that simple a task. Many think and take it as an English language learning course whereas that is not the case. The premise for giving an IELTS exams is simply to acknowledge that you have a reasonable control of the English language and all you need is tweaking or simply to be taught how to answer the questions correctly.

English language testing has more to it than you think. For those serious about going abroad, it is always better to prepare accordingly while taking such tests.

Spread over Speaking, Reading, Listening and Writing, the test is designed as such that no one formula fits all. For example, the Speaking one is the only one of the four tests where you get to physically interact with the examiner.

Your replies are recorded in real time and your emotions come into play. Time restrictions are related with the ‘umms’ that one takes to think about what to say. One might think that this is the easy of the tests, but you would be shocked how difficult it becomes for many, the stage-fright syndrome that blanks a candidate at the moment of truth.

You are given the opportunity to jot down your thoughts. Do that. Keep a pleasant face, be happy and jovial when interacting with the examiner. At the same time, be mindful of what the question is. If it references happy times, like favourite childhood toy or neighbourhood, then the smiling should continue or at least be reflective in your answers.

But if the query is about your opinion, or something sad, then the smiley face would definitely be out of league. Natural emotions are appreciated. In opinionated questions, it is always good to express yourself. Say strongly for the topics you believe in, but do interact with the examiner.

Some candidates, as a result of the stage fright, even close their eyes to be in their own zone when speaking. That is not good. The expressions on your face should be representative of what you believe and what you want to say. Even if the English is not up to mark, you should be able to communicate what you want to say.

The challenge in the two minutes that you get to express yourself is to be clear about how you want to express yourself. Say what you want to say and keep saying. Do not stop. Pause only when the examiner asks you to. If you do before that, you lose marks. When I gave IELTS, the biggest mistake I made was that I stuck to the literal meaning of the question. And after I had answered it, I stopped, not realising the examiner was judging me for my eloquence, and not for the knowledge on the subject. I should have deciphered the look on her face. Instead, my confidence / arrogance forced me to lose marks. Don’t go for hand waving, and, for God’s sake, do not let that spit start flying out of your mouth in enthusiasm. The examiner might be seated close enough to get affected or offended. Be natural and within the limits of social etiquette.

In the other IELTS tests, things are a different kind of difficult. For most of us who are accustomed to rote learning it is difficult to take a decision immediately. In the Listening part, you have to jump to an answer immediately. Or at least save it in a part of your brain that you can re-collect in the time you get to review your answers. Never leave a blank answer. Always give it a shot and hope for the best.

Here, too, my novice approach cost me. I left a couple of answers thinking ah, what harm would two answers going to do to me. Every answer left unanswered deprives you of an opportunity to score a perfect 40 (band 9). My errors pulled my answer to 6.5 overall. There were incorrect answers too; it was probably my arrogance in play again.  

Reading was challenging with indirect questions looking for direct answers. In Writing, the trick is to go for the comprehension first rather than the letter. The topic of writing carries the most marks in this module. But in the given time, if you think of going for the letter-writing, you end up losing time, and, thus, marks. There is always the initial draft that is then reviewed.

At first, you think you have done a great job. It is just that you can make it better. You review. You rephrase. You rewrite. And by the time you review the time left, you have spent 30 minutes perfecting 150 words and now you are left with 30 minutes for 250 words! Now imagine had you done this the other way round. This is the IELTS test, not your primary school test where you have to impress the teacher with eloquence! Get to the comprehension part, get it done in 40 minutes and then focus on the letter.

When I gave the IELTS tests, there was only the option of doing it in hard copy. It had been over 10 years since I left the university and had become a salve to the computer. So, when I got to the IELTS part, it was difficult for me to compose my thoughts fast enough to be able to write the correct answer or phrase in the short time I had.

Now, the option of taking the IELTS exam online is there. If you take this option, you get to save time by not having to transfer your answers on the first page answer sheet. You also get to play around with your thoughts and change your comprehension sheet as per your liking.

Judging by the advertisements I received online while writing this piece, there are a number of institutes around the country giving IELTS preparatory classes. Though they charge a good penny, but that is worth the investment considering that the IELTS tests now cost Rs35,000 in one go.

If you plan to go abroad, start planning your IELTS now. Start reading newspapers for sure. Start building your vocabulary and start brushing up your synonym list. All these will definitely help your IELTS test when the time comes. 

Everyone has reasons for having opted for this degree. One might do it to add some much-desired credibility in their resume, but, honestly speaking, by the explosive rate the epidemic of MBA has spread in our country, the recruiters will most of the times judge if you are worth your salt on what your work experience tells them; not that piece of stamped paper.

Anyone can buy an MBA these days, no one can buy the work experience and knowledge from doing the job itself. By ‘buying’ I don’t mean ‘buying fake degrees’, but the money one spends – of their father do – paying fee to those MBA-bestowing universities … they just sit there, ensure the required attendance and that is all; If you can pay, you can play.

They hardly learn anything, specially the ‘Executive MBAs’. It is only partly the fault of the universities, as the students mostly don’t learn anything because they are not there to learn. They are there to get a degree so they can show it at their office for a promotion next quarter.

There is a lot to learn while doing MBA, but the opportunity cost today seems a bit too high to warrant such an investment. Think long and hard before you go for it.

An MBA programme teaches students how to operate a business or alternatively how a business operates. Be mindful that an MBA programme, along with most other variants of education, is nothing more than structured guidance. What you choose to do with the guidance is solely up to you and that is ultimately where its value truly lies.

Whether or not people have an MBA degree doesn’t seem to have much to do with whether or not they will be able to create happy, successful lives for themselves. Having an MBA really just means that you paid your money, and you went to class and studied sufficiently to pass enough of your courses to graduate.

It doesn’t predict whether you’ll be able to apply what you have supposedly learned to the real world, and – most importantly – it seems to have very little bearing on whether or not you will be able to continue to learn, to keep acquiring the skills and knowledge you will need along the way. For all the wisdom a student might accumulate in a full-time, two-year MBA programme, the real value in a graduate business-school education is in learning how to think like a businessperson.

For those who opt for MBA for the sole reason that it will improve their skillset, ask a professional and he will tell you that one learns the best on the job. No amount of theory could prepare you for the practical skills needed. One must consider all the opportunity costs. Identify what skills or knowledge of a specific job you would like to obtain and then try to get a job in that area.

Just like anything (even MBA applications), you need to be proactive to search and ask for the job you want experience in. At least you still get paid, acquire practical work experience and not just end up with debt.

In recent past, people have been opting for an MBA to switch their career paths as well. Passing out with a Master’s in Business Administration is assumed to stamp a person as a versatile employee who can be relocated to a whole list of departments in an organisation. People assume it to be a Master key more than just a Master’s degree.

Why do an MBA, incur expenses of hundreds of thousands of rupees for two years or more only to change jobs? Why not do it now? Ask for internship may be, work for free even for a short time to gain valuable experiences for your CV to diversify and land the job you want now.

People who are midway or just past midway of their careers often choose to do MBA to socialise, network or just to have a good time off their jobs. The desire of a guilt-free career break or search for new direction is a reason (subconscious or not) for taking an MBA.

Given the high cost and additional work involved in this demanding course, I would say itis better to take a month’s off to travel the world, meet people or spend time with family. Not only it gives your battery the recharge you desperately need, it will definitely help you learn more about your true likes and dislikes during that period of idleness to give you a better sense of direction and purpose for your next phase.

How does it feel when a prospective employer puts your MBA credentials aside during the interview and asks, ‘tell me what you know about this job and what you can do for our company?’ People blame the interviewer; the employer. But it will be wrong to hold only the employers responsible for such an approach without bringing the business schools in the argument.

The local business schools equally share the responsibility for the treatment MBAs are given in the local or international job market. From the employers’ perspective, overwhelming majority of our MBAs lack the skills, competence and aptitude that today’s business world demands. Employers see little value in hiring an MBA compared to a bachelor’s degree holder, for both are lacking the skills employers are looking for. Only one costs more.

This supposedly reviving economy is just another kick in the knee (or wherever!) for prospective employees. The organisations in this flaccid economy, even the big ones, are forced to reconsider their hiring standards and policies. This although can be a good opportunity for bright individuals with degrees from lower ranked colleges to make their mark, but how can one not feel the pain for someone who has spent millions of rupees for their MBA from a top school and is now constantly running out of employment opportunities that suit him money-wise? It is depressing to see our MBAs working on such meagre salaries after spending considerable sums of money to get this degree.

MBAs used to be help one stand out from the many graduates. Now that elite group is more like a crowd. In the early 1990s, you had to be enrolled in a full-time programme to attain an MBA. These days, you can get one part-time or online from schools that are hardly household names.

Ask yourself this important question. In fact, it is the only question you really should ask yourself before you start rolling down the MBA hill: what are you going to do with your MBA degree?

One of the greatest losses is when students complete the MBA journey and then do nothing to change their life with the guidance they received. Now, if that is intentional, then fine, but in many cases, it is not. What happens is that people just don’t know what to do.

Initially, they are charged up and ready to make a change and then life comes calling; bills, student loans, family responsibilities, reality, fear, etc. and their focus shifts and they end up back in the rat race they originally intended to get out of – but now with an additional considerable amount of either student loan or an empty saving account.

So, before you consider going through the efforts of embarking upon a programme, ask yourself this vital question. Most importantly – be honest with yourself. You can still choose to do it, but it has to be a conscious decision. Going into something with a false sense of reality will certainly yield a fate not desirable.

The point is not to prove anything against the usefulness of an MBA, as there is certainly a lot to learn there. But the opportunity cost seems too high to warrant such investment, and there are just too many promising alternatives to achieve the same outcome. To put it in a nutshell, the return on investment (ROI) is critically low; and MBAs themselves are told to avoid such undertakings!

Medical education is perceived as being stressful and medical schools and colleges are often recognised as having stressful environment that exert negative pressure on the academic performance, physical health, and psychological well-being of the students. A study published in the Journal of Pakistan Medical Association (JPMA) reveals that approximately 70 per cent of the total 142 medical students interviewed suffered from anxiety and depression. Of them, most of the students – 59 per cent, to be precise – were females.

Yousaf Pirkani was one of the hundreds of students who suffer from stress, anxiety and depression due to academic pressure. Another student, Safiullah Khan Jamali, who was pursuing a degree in chemical engineering at the Institute of Engineering and Fertilizer Research, fell prey to the same pressure and shot himself in October 2018 after he was expelled.

Academic stress refers to the state of mental distress which arises due to the fear of failure in academics and inability of students to cope up with the challenges. It obstructs a student’s ability to focus and function effectively and decreases their efficiency and productivity. High level of academic stress can be alarming, leading to various mental health problems.

An overly demanding educational landscape leads to academic stress which obstructs students’ ability to focus and function effectively and decreases their efficiency and productivity.

Muhammad Daniyal, a mechanical engineering graduate of NED University, defines five reasons that lead to academic stress. He elaborates them as pressure of expectations from parents; peer pressure; pressure to be in the limelight and gain the attention of friends and teachers; pressure from institution in terms of curriculum and time management; and vague grading criteria that alters often, affecting students’ grades.

Daniyal believes the pressure to become a doctor or engineer is immense. “There should be a free career counselling session for students and their parents where students are advised a field of study based on their interests and competencies and both parents and students should be guided why it would be the best bet for them,” he advises.

Asim Hasan, 22, was threatened by his professor for failing him if he launched a complaint against him or made any effort to change him as the advisor of automotive society. “Although I knew he could not do that, the thought of being failed was so dreadful that I didn’t take any step,” he recalls.

Narmeen Khan, a student of O Levels, was not only affected mentally but also emotionally when she realised that she had lost many of her friends by missing their important calls, events and cancelling every plan her friends made to hang out due to her studies. “I was left alone most of the time; my only company was my daunting course books,” she says.

The CAIE exams altered her perception of the education system practised in Pakistan. “The pressure crushed me and my fellows as students. We felt as if we were perpetually made to stand on the edge of a soaring cliff, peering down into a bottomless, black void. My health rapidly deteriorated as my CAIE exams neared. I started to lose sleep. I would lie awake at night, worrying whether I would get straight A grades or not.”

No matter how many hours Narmeen would study, she never felt as if she had done enough. “I smashed all barriers between me and straight A grades. But at what cost? My health? My sanity?” she wonders. Narmeen believes hundreds of students are victims of depression because of our flawed education system. “Numerous students take their lives due to bad grades and unrealistic pressure to make their parents and teachers proud. Is that what the world wants? Damaged, overburdened children? Doesn’t our health matter? I believe it matters the most,” she ponders.

Abeeha Jalal Zaidi, an engineer currently working in a government organisation, has always been a bright student but not as bright to bag a gold medal. “It’s a myth when people say CGPA doesn’t matter. It does. When top-notch companies come at the year-end to the university for recruitment, they only hire position holders and those with CGPA higher than 3.8. Even if you have a good CGPA of 3.6, you are made to feel worthless. This shatters confidence and you start doubting yourself,” she says.

Abeeha discusses how a friend of her was being bullied by other students when he had a year-back due to his low grades. “He started to avoid our gatherings due to this bullying.”

Saad Lakhani, a student of electrical engineering, never dreamt himself to be an engineer because he felt his abilities were not best suited to the degree despite being an outstanding student. “My parents believe that ‘real degrees’ can only be attained by studying medicine, engineering or business administration. So I was pressurised to get enrolled in an engineering degree.” Despite trying, Saad was unable to convince his parents to let him opt for a degree in social sciences.

Academic stress can also be caused by financial burden of education and related expenses. When Sidra Paracha, 19, was studying hard for her O Levels, she suffered a lot. Her parents told her clearly she needs to bag a cent per cent scholarship for A Levels if she wants to study A Levels in the future or else she would have to switch to the intermediate system.

“Attaining a cent per cent scholarship means you have to grab high grades in your O Levels. The pressure to get a scholarship was nerve-wracking and it got worse due to the absence of teachers for four courses at my school.”

To help herself with studies, Sidra started taking tuitions where she was given 200 questions per subject to be solved in two days as homework. “The CAIEs were approaching; I lost my appetite and lost eight kilogrammes in one month. I started having migraines daily and suffered from insomnia.”

Sidra lost her focus on studies as a result. She remembers times when she used to stare at the board to understand the simplest equation written on it. She did manage to get a scholarship for her A Level though. She studied without any pressure in her A Levels and still cleared it with flying colours.

Somaiyah Hafeez, 20, a first year student of BS Physics, had been battling with mental health issues since long and considered academics a great distraction until she entered the phase of higher studies. “The mark of everything is the grades you get. I used to worry about how my mental health will be impacted if all the hard work I have put in does not translate into good grades. The way we are judged by institutions on the basis of grades has integrated into our minds. I had insomnia because of it and gave my paper with no sleep.”

Somaiyah says her mental health was severely affected by the self-imposed pressure she has put on herself to get good grades. And she is still bothered by her mental health while giving exams in university now.

Another aspect that adds to academic stress among female engineering students is the experience of being discriminated by teachers for studying in a male-dominated field. “Since we were studying mechanical engineering, which is considered a male-dominated field, our teachers used to ignore us for industry trips and workshops and used to favour our male class-fellows. This was very disheartening,” says Saima Sanober.

Ariba Irfan, currently studying at a management university in Lahore, believes that academic pressure is immense but it can be dealt with if students learn to manage it. “Yes, I used to get tense about academics, but when I work hard and take things side by side, it is easy to balance things out while attaining good grades.”

In this modern competitive era when students go through serious stressful situations through the course of their academic career and youthful pursuits, many universities do not have mental health counsellors. At places that do offer mental health counselling, either the student-counsellor ratio is not good enough or the counselling sessions are not free.

Studies suggest academic stress put negative impact on the mental health of students regardless of the age and gender. A sound mind, as the saying goes, resides in a sound body, and students must be involved in physical and extracurricular relaxing activities to reduce their stress levels.

It is high time parents stopped overburdening their children with their own high expectations. Likewise, the universities should create a stress-free environment for students where they can excel at their own pace. On their part, the students need to understand that keeping a healthy balance is a basic life skill they need to master for their bright future.

“There is some truth in that, but it really depends on the college/university in question. In my experience, I can say that there is a huge spectrum of quality when it comes to college and universities abroad. College rankings, in my opinion, represent the ultimate test whether a college, regardless of its location, is superior or inferior. It also comes down to the area of focus of the student as some colleges offer better programmes in certain fields of study,” he says, adding that he “can name many situations where I have come across better qualified candidates from local universities versus foreign universities.”

Azeem may have seen bright students having schooled in Pakistan as there is no dearth of talent in the country and our students usually perform well when they go abroad. But most people in the country are quite disappointed with the quality of education at our local colleges and universities, and think it is the driving factor which forces our students to seek education abroad.

And they have reason to be disappointed. The QS World University rankings say a lot about the quality of education in our universities. According to the 2019 rankings, only seven Pakistani universities are in the top 1,000 entities of the world, and, of these, only three made it to the top 500. The Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences (PIEAS), which has been ranked as the country’s highest ranking university, is at the 397th position, while the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) stands at 417, followed by the Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU).

While perception does influence choices when it comes to higher education, there is also a lot on the ground that cannot be ignored when picking up your next academic stop.

Given the standard of education in most of our universities, students make it their life’s ambition to go abroad for higher education. To add to the equation is the range of subjects available to students. Most of our universities do not offer a number of subjects that the students may want to pursue their career in. So if students want to study, say, space science they have limited choice of institutions that offer it locally, and, if possible in any way, they will opt to go abroad.

But it is not only university ranking or quality of education that makes children go abroad. Mehreen, a mother of three, thinks peer pressure is also an important factor. Two of her sons went to the United Kingdom for graduation, and the third is aspiring to follow the same path. She says that “quality of education offered at our universities is poor and this combined with peer pressure forces our children to go abroad. What options do they have after graduation or even Master’s from our local institutions?” she asks.

Peer pressure, as Rumana Hussain says, “is something which for the 16-18 year olds is almost impossible to deal with. Almost every student at the school aspires to go to a college or university either in the US or the UK. Also, there is encouragement from the teachers to apply.”

Such is the power of peer pressure that when Maria’s parents did not allow her to go abroad after A Levels, she became dejected and lost interest in her studies. She wanted to go to the UK for her graduation, like her friends, but her parents did not allow her as they thought she was too young to live on her own in a strange country.

They explained to her that they will send her for Master’s, but seeing most of her friends applying to foreign universities during their final year of A Levels, she could not focus on her studies. She could not see any reason to work hard and felt left out from her peer group. Now studying at a prestigious university in Pakistan, she believes most of the students there are those who could not go abroad for one reason or another.

Mehreen points out another factor: “Quite a number of families now have disposable income and can afford to send their children abroad.” But to say that all students who go abroad are supported by their parents will not be right. Many bright students who deserve a good education cannot go abroad because they cannot afford to do so.

Some years back, funding and scholarships were more readily available and those who could not afford, sought these opportunities. Rumana and her husband had made it clear to their children that they cannot afford to send them abroad for studies. However, her children were lucky as both of them got scholarships to go abroad, as “it was something they had always harboured in their hearts, as their grandfather had also gone to the US from pre-partition India, and their father went to a university in Turkey”.

“The quality of education/higher education and the opportunities over there is another matter. We also realised how much the professors there push the students to get the best out of them,” adds Rumana.

However, scholarships are now not as readily available as they were some time back, especially for countries such as the US, UK and Canada, though there are more opportunities for countries like Turkey, Malaysia, Japan, etc. Still some do get funding, Says s Azeem: “I have seen some very bright Pakistani students getting full scholarships purely on the basis of merit from some of the top universities abroad.” However, he cautions that “with the ever-evolving political landscape, that may change as well”.

Ali Shahid, who has MBBS and MBA degrees from Karachi and works at a multinational pharmaceutical company in Karachi, sums it all: “Lack of opportunities locally, lack of quality education, lack of research-oriented fields and favouritism in evaluation are key factors. The sad stories of struggle they hear from their seniors working in Pakistan push them to seek education abroad.”

However, he points out that the students who aspire to go abroad “are generally oblivious of the hardships that students have to face while there, such as part-time jobs, loneliness and in some cases even profiling. They only see the beautifully painted picture which is available via different social forums and build their entire assumption around that”.

It is not that we do not have good institutions in the country. But they are few and may be counted on fingertips. How many students can get admission to institutions such as the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi, Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Lahore, National University of Science and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, and a few others?

Even if they do manage to secure a place at one of these institutions, what chances do students have of getting a good job, given the market situation in the country. When they invest so much in education, they want better jobs which are not there. Students know that if they study abroad, there are more chances of landing a job in that country, and even if they come back they will get preference in the job market.

Says Azeem: “If the student has long-term career aspirations [of settling] abroad, then it is better to have a foreign degree, although some of the more prestigious universities in Pakistan, such as the IBA and LUMS, are also very well recognised abroad.”

He gives his personal example: “My motivation to pursue studies abroad was to pursue a career on Wall Street in the long term, so that is why I chose to go to a renowned business school in the US.” He fears that “due to the political turmoil over the last two decades, the chances for a Pakistani graduate to apply for a job internationally purely on merit has become increasingly difficult due to visa restrictions”.

But what happens when an individual decides to come back after completing their studies? Do they get jobs according to their qualification and calibre?

Says Ali: “Entry level positions pay very little here compared to foreign countries where degrees matter more.” He cites the example of his brother who graduated from the US, worked there for some years, and came back because of his mother’s ill health.

“Abbas [his brother] was earning way better than me even after graduation. He was offered unbelievable jobs at Cisco and Microsoft, but he returned due to our mother’s heath issues, although he had work permit as well. Somehow, here, he wasn’t offered jobs that were up to his calibre, and most of the interviewers were either less educated or were scared to hire him.

“During all this, he did a stint at a company at almost one-third of what he was earning a few years back and without a Master’s. Now he is jobless for almost three years and becoming a misfit in the local market since IT is more of an evolving field and gap creeped in, distancing him further from the advancement that has taken place in technology.”

“Also, it’s a fact that education ki yahan qadar nahin. I have many seniors who are less educated and I know many who have fake credentials. The management does not knowingly pay heed to that. This is almost unheard of in countries like Canada,” he concludes.

In today’s day and age, where just about everyone has a ‘camera’, there are billions of photographers trotting about the globe, thanks to the proliferation of smartphones. According to statistics, there will be more than two billion of these globally connected devices popping out of our pockets this year. Most of these will be held by new age kids, making duck faces and posting God-knows-what pictures using online apps and sharing with their friends. But what these and some of my friends are doing is not photography. It is simply clicking a button and then forgetting about the photo to be reviewed in the years to come.

First thing to do of course is to have a digital camera. And I am talking about a DSLR. If you don’t have one, get it. If you can’t afford one, borrow it. If neither works, then don’t waste money on the photography class. Don’t take this as sarcasm, but going for a photography class is only viable when you can at least have a DSLR camera. Otherwise it is just like going for car driving lessons and not having a car to practise it on.

Prices of a camera start from Rs50,000 and go all the way into the millions. For beginners, the basic need is a half-frame camera. If you can afford a hundred thousand more, then go for a full-frame one. I have two and they are both good pieces of equipment. Of course technology evolves and now companies are pushing for mirrorless cameras. But reliable technology is some time away.

Away from professional studies, there is a world that helps you bring out the creativity buried inside you. And, then, you never know when you might think of switching careers!

Once when you have secured the camera, the necessary peripherals are cheap. I didn’t go for the same brand flash or tripod. I simply opted for the cheaper Chinese variety. Flash you can get hold of in Rs8,000 while the tripod is for Rs2,000. A bag to carry all the equipment and the expected investment in the future is in the area of Rs5,000.

When buying the flash, don’t hold back on rechargeable cells. The regular cells drain quickly, as do the rechargeable ones. At least with the later you can re-use them for some time to come. There, now you are good to go on your photo journey. A note: no matter the price, all equipment requires care and patience. Do not for a moment think that you can take them for granted. Use them as they have been prescribed. Read the ‘note’ again, if you will!

When I enrolled in the class, the first lesson I got was how to hold the camera. This heavy bulky piece of equipment needs respect, unlike the smart phone in our pocket. With phones we can simply take them out and flick them on the bed, sofa, couch, push them on the table desk or inside the drawer. Now imagine doing that with the camera. When holding the camera you need to use both your hands, adjust the lens, focus on your subject, frame him and voila!

Leaning photography also taught us to respect the environment. Going out in the searing heat of the summers or the harsh winters, you have to go to the subject.

Photography is an art form. In today’s digital age, it has been made easy. There was once a time when it used to take hours to develop an image. Dark rooms, reels of footage et al. Today the same takes minutes. Thanks to technology, it is something that is an instant form of artistic expression. Hence, each individual should be good in photography.

In this modern digital age, photography should be considered important just as other skills like reading and writing.

Like other forms of learning, photography takes time and practice. So be patient and keep clicking and keep correcting yourself. Don’t rely on the auto mode. Those days are long gone. Adjust your shutter and aperture. Find the right balance for the moment.

One of the confusing things for me at class was to realize that as the numbers increase, the aperture will close. It was quite funny how my frustration increased when in the indoor shoot class, my results were completely dark, not realizing that 22 was in fact the bare minimum for the light to enter!

Same with the shutter. The less time I gave for it to capture the light, the worse result I got. Our teacher, Rahmatullah Khan, enjoyed the whole scenario. He kept quiet and later reminded me of my mistake. The result is that the first thing I do after switching on the camera is adjust my aperture and shutter settings according to the image I want to capture.

The world around us is what we perceive. Everyone looks at the world from a different point of view. Photography helps us truly share our point of view and perspective with the rest of the world. To many, a baby is a bay. To a photographer, it is innocence, happiness, joy, new life. To be able to get an idea in your head into a visual reality is what photography really does.

The rigours of life deny us the ability to be creative. This is true especially of our jobs. We have the ability as humans to express our emotions. Photography can give us an option to express this hidden creativity inside us and help us become different in a good way.

Initially, I just wanted to capture what I saw; not what was there. As a result, I was taking all the photos that everyone else was taking. However, over a period I learnt to slow down, view what was around me, seeing things that normally I would ignore in the blink of an eye. Your world becomes much more detailed than you have ever noticed before.

As your comfort with technique and equipment grows, you find that you can actually convey these things to others in a meaningful way. The sports day at your children’s school turns into a story that you can share on social media and through prints. By the way, I discovered a plus side to having a camera and it is that the ladies love to be photographed. Luckily, my wife was chill with it, so that went very well as well!

Speaking of prints, we also got to learn the basics of Photoshop and I eventually got to saw the print and the framing work. This is again something that mobile photography does not let you.

As you move through life, changing careers, migrating to another country, your photography remains with you. It is a skill that defines you wherever you go.

People see a camera in my hand and immediately I strike up a conversation talking about photography and the equipment I am carrying. Soon after you are being tested for your skill. People start demanding results. And that is when your practice starts showing off.

Simple snapshots don’t rise to this level of contemplation. ‘Learning’ photography forces contemplation. Using a purpose-built camera gives you an optimised tool for capturing images of your world. It is not that you can’t capture great images with a phone – countless people have proven that you can. But a phone camera is just that – it is a phone that takes pictures. A dedicated camera forces you to think about the camera and what it can do for you. With a phone camera, it is the opposite – the struggle is figuring out how to get something out of it.

Coming back to the photography class, there are things to avoid, like not to take unnecessary photos of your colleagues! No matter how pretty they are. Just don’t. You are there to learn how to photograph, not do what you think you are doing.

At the end of my course I realised I am still learning photography. This is something that only ages with time and practice. It is never going to be over. And I am looking forward to it progressing in the years to come.

WHY is it that when you are told by a young person that he or she intends to pursue ‘higher education’, you immediately enquire to which foreign institution they are applying? It is rare that you visualise a young Pakistani man or woman acquiring ‘higher education’ from a Pakistani university. Employers are mostly impressed when they see a foreign qualification on an applicant’s CV and are more inclined to appointing the person rather than someone who has obtained a high qualification from a local university.

Even if it is a local institution, it should belong to the elite list. My daughter, after she did her Masters in International Relations from the public-sector university in Karachi, was offered a lesser salary by a leading newspaper than appointees at the same level from an elite private-sector university in Lahore. The employers almost doubled her salary when she returned two years later after having won a Fulbright scholarship and acquired a Masters from the US. Interesting, right?

Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah had emphasised the importance of education, saying that he no doubt that the future of Pakistan would greatly depend upon the type of education “we give to our children”, and the way in which “we bring them up as future citizens of Pakistan”. He had reminded the nation that it had to compete with the world which was moving very fast.

It seems that over the past 70 years, the nation has not paid much heed to the observations of the Quaid.

Pakistan may have much to be proud of in quantitative terms as far as universities and graduates are concerned, but when it comes to quality, one really has to think again.

It is true that at the time of Partition in 1947, there was only one institution of higher learning in Pakistan – the Punjab University – and today there are over 200 universities in the country. However, what progress has Pakistan made on the educational front in terms of quality education at all levels and on the higher education front in particular? The national literacy rate continues to hover at a dismal 60 per cent, as claimed by the government, while the situation at the higher levels of learning is even worse.

Pakistan does well in quantitative terms. With a population of over 200 million people, it produces about 445,000 university graduates and 10,000 Computer Science graduates every year. The figure is growing with the growing population. The rising enrollment in Pakistani universities is making a lot of headway. On the human capital front, Pakistan boasts a population that is predominantly young.

According to a National Human Development Report of the UNDP, Pakistan has the largest population of young people. It is currently one of the youngest countries in the world and the second youngest in the South Asian region. The report says that 64 per cent of the country’s total population is below the age of 30, while 29 per cent is between the ages of 15-29 years.

But this does not mean that Pakistan’s young population is well-served in terms of quality educational facilities across the spectrum. With one of the lowest literacy rates in the world, Pakistan also has the second largest out-of-school population; roughly 5.1 million children.

The country lags far behind other countries in the region and across the world in terms of higher education. India, with a population of over 1.3 billion, is said to have about 800 universities, Lebanon, with a population of around six million, has 32 universities, Turkey (population: 82 million) has 183 universities, while Australia (population: 25 million) has 43 institutions of university level.

Pakistan may have much to be proud of in terms of the number of institutions of higher learning that it has or the number of graduates that it churns out every year, but in qualitative terms, there is nothing much to be proud of. There was a time when students from many countries used to come to Pakistan to gain higher education, and degrees from Pakistan’s institutions of higher learning were readily accepted by overseas employers. The situation has gradually retrograded.

Except for scholarships for which outstanding Pakistani students qualify, there are hardly any overseas institutions of higher learning where applicants from Pakistan are readily welcomed. The rich Pakistanis who pay high fees at leading overseas educational institutions so that their offspring can obtain degrees are few in number and, in any event, the foreign institutions concerned are driven more by commercial considerations than anything else in accepting rich, high fee-paying students.

Higher education in Pakistan has been the domain of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) since 2002, an organisation preceded by the University Grants Commission (UGC). Universities in Pakistan were formerly accredited by the UGC which was established in 1947. Then, in the early 2000s, Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman was asked to set up the HEC and he was made its first Chairman. Major advancements in the higher education sector in Pakistan came about under him. These were described as a remarkable transformation in Pakistan’s higher education sector in an article in the world’s leading science journal, Nature, which described Prof. Rahman as a “force of nature”.

Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman is said to have resigned from the HEC in protest in 2008 due to the suspension of scholarships of thousands of students who were studying abroad. The decision was taken by the then government. The budget cuts led to the slowing down of the university development programmes and introduction of various cumbersome bureaucratic procedures.

When the HEC was established, new or revised reforms were introduced. While on the one hand, the Commission was made responsible for formulating higher education policies in Pakistan, it was also charged with ensuring quality to meet international standards as well as accrediting academic degrees, development of new institutions and uplift of the existing ones.

The HEC also facilitated the development of a higher educational system in the country with the main purpose of upgrading the universities and degree-awarding colleges to be focal points for higher education, research and development. For many years, the HEC played an important and leading role in building a knowledge-based economy by awarding hundreds of doctoral scholarships for education abroad.

The professor expressed the opinion in 2012 that higher education in Pakistan had achieved critical mass and reached a point of takeoff. He said that for this phenomenal growth to continue, it was important for the government and other stakeholders to support and further strengthen the HEC as a national institution and protect its autonomy. He said that if this momentum continued for another 10 years, Pakistan was certain to become a global player through a flourishing Knowledge Economy and a highly literate population.

However, under the 18th Amendment, which was promulgated in 2010, with the devolvement of education and many other subjects from the Federation to the provinces, the progress that had been made in just a few years came to a grinding halt. As things stand, the HEC in the provinces only seems to have turned into a degree-attestation institution.

The 18th Amendment enhances provincial autonomy and, among other subjects, the provinces have been made responsible for education in their respective areas. As a result, it was thought that a clear roadmap had been laid for the jurisdiction of the provinces. What has really happened, as far as the education sector is concerned, is that the provincial and federal higher education regulatory commissions are working parallel to each other since there has been no demarcation of their respective areas of authority.

The public sector has not made much headway as far as higher education is concerned. This apathy is due to lack of long-term policies, political interference and sectionalism. The government departments and ministries that oversee higher education just do not seem to care about their national responsibility and they are least interested in national development or the country’s future.

Like in many other areas, the sector of education seems to have been taken over by the private sector, which, in turn, operates with only commercial considerations in view and fleeces the public in all possible ways. This means that higher education in the real sense is simply out of reach of the people at large. While, ideally speaking, education is the basic right of every citizen and the state is duty-bound to fulfill this responsibility, those people who look towards the state are probably only day-dreaming.

Higher education entails research at universities, but it seems that both in public and private sectors, all that the so-called researchers are interested in are the funds. There is no check on how research is conducted on both scientific and social science subjects. Once a research study has been completed, the researchers concerned seem to be more interested in quick promotion. There are also no guidelines for publication of the study.

Appointments to faculties at institutions of higher learning are also not made on merit and recommendations, along with political influence, play a big role. There are so many cases where professors, even after they retire, continue to get extensions or they are re-hired on a contract basis.

All this serves as a dampener for young and energetic faculty members. One important aspect of national progress in the world today is the successful evolution of a Knowledge Economy. Pakistan has all the potential to attain progress in this area, but it appears that it is simply wasting the opportunity.

Here is one such incident. An unidentified object was spotted in the skies of Swat in the aftermath of the army operation that had already damaged the confidence of the tourists in visiting what was once a dream destination. It was discovered that a local individual using his ingenuity of mind had invented a private three-seat ‘aircraft’ powered by a low-cost scooter engine that was taking tourists for Rs100 per head from Mingora to Kalam. Before it could hit headlines, or before the enterprising young man could make a profit, however, the project was grounded for security reasons.

The entrepreneurial spirit of this genius Pakistani in Swat brings to mind the first flight of the famed Wright Brothers that triggered economic activities of unprecedented scale through aviation. We had to ground the project. That is what unnecessary attention doed to entrepreneurship!

Talking of Swat, the economic success of the ‘Princely State of Swat’ is an interesting case study before its merger with Pakistan on July 28, 1969. The small state and its people were self-sufficient and prosperous in the economic sense. The state ensured protection for all and promoted its indigenous resources including forest, wildlife, tourism and as minerals. It ensured plantation of new trees before cutting the old ones.

Good governance and speedy justice were two state functions that guaranteed equitable economic growth. No indigenous food resource, whether organic eggs, fruits or honey, was allowed to be taken out of the state without special permission, and that kept the prices within the reach of is citizens. The economic stability of the state with no financial resources other than its own can be judged from the fact that it donated a fighter jet to the under-equipped state of Pakistan soon after independence.

Once a foreign cyclist had faced harassment while in Swat. The ruler is said to have taken immediate notice of the incident and ensured that the victim was lodged in a hotel at state’s expense till the perpetrators were brought to the book. Examples of good governance such as this boosted the tourists’ confidence in the state capabilities to protect not only its citizens but also tourists.

The moral of the story is that entrepreneurship and state protection can do wonders even without university degrees. Think about it.

The hiring managers have their own litany of woes, blaming the situation entirely on degree-awarding universities, which, according to them, are not preparing the students for the professional world. In simple words, there is a disconnect between the education system and the real professional world. The prospect for adequate employment has been dismal for the millennials as a whole — and it often means graduating to just go back home and embark on a job search which is usually a lengthy affair and often ends in underemployment. The exceptions will be there, as is always the case, but a degree leading to a job is not something that happens in a hurry for the majority.

This is not just a concern but a rising one and it has gotten so massive in most parts of the world that it is one of the major issues electoral candidates put their prime agendas while luring the voters.

Looking back, till the middle of the 20th century, university education was reserved for the elite, with only a small window for upwardly middle- or working-class students. The problem cropped up because the people leading our corporate and academic entities are still from that era. They may have vast industry experience but their methods of imparting knowledge are still orthodox.

There are critical elements that are less valued by the universities, but that is what the employers are looking for.

Many academic leaders fear that paying more attention to the career needs of students will be the first step on a slippery slope to ‘vocationalisation of education’.

Their teaching strategy prefers formal education over learning and almost at the very basic level fails to incorporate a students’ perspective which should help engaging them in their academic learning. A lot of the younger teachers, by age or mindset, firmly believe that some students do not learn as well in traditional classroom settings because it does not engage or incorporate cultural experiences.

Universities continue to dwell on the theoretical in favour of the practical, and it doesn’t bode well in result-driven industries. It is a major problem for businesses that want to hire employees who can hit the ground running, especially considering the level of competition many companies face today.

However, one must put at least some blame on the employers too as most of them have opted out of providing comprehensive training programmes — especially in the start-up environment where funds are scarce. But it can be a pitfall, considering a substantial percentage of recent graduates – who are often underprepared as noted by the employers – would opt for a large company instead of small ones. This, coupled with universities’ inability to fully prepare workforce candidates, equals a reduced pool of adequate fresh contenders. In other words, the problem does not rest on colleges alone.

The truth is that rapid changes have made it difficult for educational institutions to adapt and, in turn, have created the ‘skills gap’ we are sobbing about. For example, most top universities don’t offer Facebook or Google-Ad marketing courses as part of Marketing curriculum that matter in today’s market; instead, they opt for commercial creation or branding strategies that no longer widely apply. Congruently, most employers also fail to deliver on the training.

Without implying at all that business is a bad thing, it has to be conceded that the educational institutions, especially universities, have become mere commercial enterprises in recent past. Now everything is measured in financial profits and the quality of education is on a steady decline. I have quite a few university teachers in my family and one of them used to teach two courses at the university along with his job a couple of years ago, and he always complained that he has no time for his research which was essential to strengthening the knowledge of subjects he was teaching.

Now the same individual teaches a total of four courses at two different universities and never moans about lack of time. When asked, he candidly admitted that he had compromised the time he used to spend on research and now just focuses on conducting the sessions regularly to keep his attendance in line. That is how the quality of education is so blatantly being compromised across the board. The universities are collecting substantial profits with their high fee structures, but still they do not want to invest more on the quality of their product which is education.

In Pakistani terms, another angle to the problem is that we lack career counselling at all levels. In our case, parents still consider themselves as the best counsellors for their child’s career but regrettably that is not the reality. In a country where literacy rate is low, how can anybody but a professional even imagine to talk about career directions. And when it comes to the need for counselling, even many among the educated prefer to live in denial. Appropriate counselling at critical stages will definitely increase the chances for individuals to land the right person in the right profession, hence reducing the severity of the cut-off between the academia and the professional environment.

Strategic thinking, communication skills, creative problem-solving, and leadership skills are among the “less familiar, more desired skills employers are seeking. Despite the number of people graduating from higher educational institutions increasing each year, employers continue to complain about a shortage of workplace competencies.

Instead of waiting for the educational system to catch up on its own, companies and universities can form coalitions so they can begin to take proactive approaches towards correcting these shortages. A few of the globally acknowledged and easily implementable solutions can be a properly structured internship programme. Even if internships are not essentially a graduation requirement for some students, it does not diminish its value.

Besides, giving students work-experience that builds some solid resumes, internships can enhance students’ educational experiences and aid their decisions about their career directions. It is absolutely vital that students, bot graduates and undergraduates, have the experience that a proper structured, strategic internship can provide.

Working on professional projects with colleagues, understanding a certain work environment, learning business etiquettes or at least helping to define their career path – there are so many reasons why an internship is valuable. It is actually a win-win situation for the students and the organisations.

Interns can infuse an organisation with fresh ideas and perspectives, offer insights about the latest technologies and complete strategic projects without straining in-house resources. Sometimes the match is mutually beneficial enough that it begins a long-term relationship.

The placement departments at certain top universities in the country are creating robust systems and tools to assist students in getting internships and jobs. Externally, the industry relations initiatives are essential to creating the opportunities for profession-ready students and graduates, which is another task for these departments.

Through these efforts, businesses will be able to find support for defining and establishing internships, and businesses and interns alike can get help to manage the relationship once the intern is engaged. Students will benefit from a number of services that will help them successfully transition from academia to the actual world.

Mentoring programmes are also known to bridge this void between soon-to-be graduates and their future potential emplo­yers. A well-implemented mentoring programme creates a culture of learning where employees actively teach and explain best practices to each other. These programmes can be made more effective if the students are mentored by the alumni.

The benefits of establishing student-alumni mentoring programmes can be immense. Students will have the opportunity to talk and interact with professionals who were once students in their very shoes. They will have the chance to ask questions, observe the workplace, and learn about a specific company that they might not feel comfortable asking other professionals. The alumni mentors can provide career guidance, encouragement during the academic development, advice on important course and field work, and opportunities to make professional contacts.

Monolithic educational structures are losing pace with the new work environments, and everyone is paying the price. If schools continue to teach subjects in silos, they will further widen the gap between what students learn and what they really need to succeed.

AS a chalk-stick is struck against the blackboard, the first words of the day appear in front of 20 pairs of cheeky lenses. While the words give birth to a sentence, a slight murmur erupts which gains a rhythm. The pitch scales, and as it does, there follows a beat echoed by the banging of a duster, marking the day’s opening.

While reading these lines, hop onto a nostalgic train. Have a seat? Settle down now. Now burst the memory bubble where you, a mini-version of you, is seated on the wooden chair waiting for the day to end.

While you (pretend) to listen to the day’s lecture, you may not realise it is the moment of the day where Ms Pinky lands next to you glued to the new set of highlighters you had joyously placed in the stationery box the preceding evening. Yes, Ms Pinky, the lanky teacher quite often spotted with pigtails and chequered printed shirts. A peek into her bag would reveal a horde of stationery coming straight from the students’ accessory reservoir ready to be taken home, while the students eagerly expected a return. With Pinky hearing the school bell ring, she exits punishing the front-row student by bagging a plastic ruler from him, adding to the almost overflowing bag.

Monday’s blues not only shed their hues in professional lives, but the first day of the week has continued to play a haunting role in school life as well. With Pinky’s exit, walks in the zealous Ms Brown. As her blue rulebook settles on the teacher’s desk, Ms Brown – instead of starting with the leftover tales of Alexander’s war on River Jhelum against the Indian king, Porus – delves into her childhood tales by the lake with her having munna biscuits. And who amongst the students would want to miss the tale of munna? With one story ending, Ms Brown did not miss to mention the crush of her life – a faraway examiner who once gifted her a book on the Indus Valley Civilization.

It is the magic of teachers’ personalities that remains etched in the students’ ethos even as years pass by. Balloons holding recollections are plentiful and bursting them all will take an entire childhood.

The bell for physical training brings a stop to Ms Brown’s account of the legendary examiner who was fond of Aryan history and hiking. As she tries to convince the kids to listen to this last bit, they rush out of the classroom for the playground – the territory of Mr Green. As the queues form for the warm up, ‘stand-ahtis’ is what keeps resounding from one ear to the other, making circles for about a good 40 seconds.

The physical training instructor’s fondness for ‘stand-ahtis’ knew no limits. It was only later the kids understood what was expected of them when they came across ‘stand at ease’. Mr Green’s liking for the foreign popular language was so much so that when he announced the birth of his daughters, he elatedly stated “the two are daughters; both of them girls”.

As time is up for the momentary escapade, the lines form again for the kids to befriend numbers. The frizzy haired Ms Yellow, always in her own arithmetic world, would be eager to waltz in the classroom always ready with the first number in mind which was to mark its domain on the blackboard. And that was what the kids preferred – Yellow in sync with the black of the board. For when she neared those sitting in the front rows, and speak, the arid land would bloom with saliva flowers.

Often, one kid would be spotted hiding behind notebooks, while another would be occupied behind a wall specially built for this period with pencil boxes; many others could be seen rummaging for appropriate shields that could act like a saliva-coat. Others could be spotted rocking on chairs waiting to stay dry while solving the equation of the day.

When the students are almost a step away from the solution, walks in Ms Violet, again early for her class. With her spectacles seeming to drop from her slippery nose – a mundane sight – and wearing the constant glare, Ms Yellow wraps up while dropping a worksheet panicking to not melt Ms Violet’s icy stare.

As the discussion ensues regarding creative writing, hexagonal reflections strike off the desks, sliding to the floor, and then again paving the way to the walls. Daze is what holds on the attention of many. Eyes soon follow the trail left behind by the reflections. With a look to the left, the reflection disappears. Soon the source reveals – Ms Violet’s saree decked with mirror work. Putting the mirror to use, a kid tried to fix his hair who was soon caught in the act and penalised – he had to complete reading Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables in three days followed by a book report. The one fixing his hair is left stupefied, while the one sitting across him can be seen in Ms Violet’s spherical bits of mirrors with eyes popping out.

A French language instructor, Mr Black, also popularly known as Goldfish, walks in next with the test scores. Unlike other result days, this one teacher is always the student’s favourite. With a short-term memory, Goldfish is known for his exemplary marking styles. For when his pen starts marking, Mr Black forgets what the real score was midway, with the end result always leading to a student’s lottery. No students enrolled in his class flunked, or scored anything lower than a B.

The quarter hourly bell reminds the entire school of Ms White’s policing period whose infatuation with the fantasy world spoke whenever she did. The first query fired at an individual would be about the homework. Not having it completed would not result in the cliché of a dog eating it. “Your fairy godmother will do it for you?” was the nonchalant retort by her. Asking her to repeat the explanation of a formerly explained concept would be countered by, “Coming coming, sitting sitting, warming benches, going home”. Ms White did encourage self-exploration. Only if Google was available at one’s fingertips all those years back. Hopefully you will still be occupying the seat on the memory train, of course warming it.

Let us now peek into the playback singer zone where teachers would hum on catchy tunes of the day. Not the age of airpods, mini stereos would be carried by Mr Blue, especially during examination days, to not make him doze off during invigilation. As the pen would churn out results on paper, Blue would be busy wiping off any blues of those appearing in the exams by acting as a choreographer in the exam hall.

Then there were those poker faces that would just walk in with the same wooden expressions, and exit the lecture hall not wearing any less bit of the dead glare. Question them, and be certain to receive an agitated response. Why ask when it is all written in the stars?

Be it the twirls in Ring around the Rosie followed by a sharp tug, forcing the teacher to the ground, to sticking around the restroom for excessive timeframes, school is a body with teachers as its brick and mortar, who build up the institute with their implacable support and hard work. It is their magic which is etched in the students’ ethos that keep reflecting in the growing years and when they take up professional roles.

There must be plentiful balloons holding recollections for you, but bursting all of them will take an entire childhood. Be it the quirky accessories of an instructor, to the heels of one sending out sound waves from even outside the premises of the school, to humongous sized bags of another, teachers framed to memory’s hall of fame are cherished. The story book of teachers is always out of stock.

It is time to leave the seat for the station to adulthood has arrived. Grab a pack of crisps from the nearby kiosk before you board a cab to your destination. Be sure nobody around you instructs yo7u how unhealthy the option you are munching is.

YOU should not have been doing your bachelors in Computer Sciences. Instead, you had all the potential of doing well in Business Administrations. This was a teacher telling me when I was on the verge of picking up a profession. He was a senior person professor specialising in marketing who had taught me in the my last year of the bachelor’s degree which I had just finished during which I had led teams organising numerous events and had been the president of the Students Council for about half a year at my university. So, did I follow his advice? We will get there in a while.

If you are from the millennial generation, being the eldest in the family here in Pakistan has its highs and lows. Back in our teen days, in such situations, we mostly think it is mostly the ‘lows’, especially if your father is mostly living abroad to put bread (and a whole lot of butter as well) on the table. But with hindsight, I can tell you being the eldest is definitely more about the ‘highs’ than the ‘lows’.

In the late 1980s and ‘90s, communication with people living abroad was not that swift and accessible as it is today, which resulted in taking a lot of decisions on your own. That was a part of growing up in such families. Though the joint family system was pretty strong at the time but I am still not sure if that was an element helpful or distracting in such situations.

I wanted to study architecture, but had already ended up doing bachelors in Computer Sciences without feeling too chuffed about it. This was the backdrop when the teacher spoke to me about what he thought I had the potential for. There were two decisions I took within days of that incident. One, I was not going pursue my masters in Computer Sciences anytime soon. Two, no matter what, I was going to give myself at least five years to decide where or what I will study for my master’s degree.

Evening and weekend programmes at various universities have a life of their own which has a pretty different texture than the routine that marks the regular course of study.

The comments from the professor stayed with me as I started working in a multimedia house soon after my bachelors as a 3D Computer Graphics (CG) artist which was just what I had taken as an elective in my bachelor’s programme. It was not long before I realised that sitting in front of machines for long hours was not something I could do for the rest of my life. I needed human interaction. This realisation made me shift my energies towards finding something closer to what I had done at university; events management. This is how I started working in the communications industry, starting with events but later moving to the larger umbrella of Public Relations. No regrets at all, and I remain grateful to the professor who put that thought in my mind.

As advised by him, I attempted doing MBA from a leading private university in Karachi in the evenings after having worked for some years in the industry. But later left the university midway for a variety of reasons. Finally, back in 2015, I completed my Master’s in Mass Communications from Karachi University – again, in the evenings – as it was a piece of qualification that was the closest to my professional career. I had some great learning and it helped me to be where I am today. It was not easy to keep a balance between work, education and life (marriage and kids included!). I had planned to put off my masters for five years. It actually turned out to be almost twice as many!

With my experience of being a student spanning many more years than is the routine, I guess I have the privilege to comment on the types of fellow students I came across all this long while. Let me share a few broad categories at the university level. Here we go!

THE BHAI CLAN: No, this is not the type of ‘Bhai’ you want to stay away from. These are the senior students who are both working and studying together. Most of the times, they are also the ‘elderly’ of the class. From the outset, they have this ‘been there, done that’ air about them because of their exposure and experiences but they really have to go the extra mile to mingle with the classmates and in making sure the teachers don’t play up the contrast too much. It gets really funny when the faculty is relatively junior in terms of both age and professional exposure. The tiff becomes a tangible commodity when either of the two sides shows a little hesitance in accepting each other as the reality.

If the clan is good in numbers, which is the case with evening programmes, things work out a little more smoothly compared to when that is not the case; the acceptance from fellow students also takes a while. A return to student’s life after a gap is in itself a big challenge. So the Bhai clan has to fight the demons inside while making external adjustments.

YES-TEACHER: While doing the masters, my belief was – and is – that we need to both learn and polish our knowledge simultaneously. This calls for having an exchange of perspectives with the teachers. Yet, from childhood it is drilled into the learning chromosome of our DNA that we get the information from the surface only, mug it and get the exams out of the way. Higher the grades, happier is everyone. Knowledge is the country cousin of academic learning in our case.

The ‘yes, teacher’ variety makes sure that there is no change in this unfortunate equation. They are joined in this game by the ‘Photocopy Champions’ who make life around the photocopy shop lively and festive around exams time. There are ‘fan moments’ aplenty between them and those who had attended all the lectures and thus have the notes with them.

It is some bizarre fun watching the Yes-Teacher-Photocopy-Champion combine when the results are announced for they often end up getting higher marks than the students from whom they had taken the notes. It is also reflection on the system of education prevalent in our scenario.

ATTENTION SEEKERS: Throughout my academic life, I personally didn’t like this particular type of classmates who start moving towards the faculty room as soon as the class ends. Is it the thirst of knowledge that makes them do this? They would love to have you believe that, and love it even more if they can have the teacher fall into the trap. You know what the irony is? Teachers, even if knowingly, do fall for it. Their heart-melt is obvious in the manner in which they mark the exam papers.

THE INSATIABLES: No matter how easy a professor would make it for the students this type will always find reason to grumble. They will whine about everything; faculty, teaching styles, quantum of courses, lectures, the length of lectures, the behaviour of the teacher, the nature of assignment, the number of assignments and God knows what. They behave as if they are doing some kind of favour to the world at large by simply studying.

SHORTCUT CHAMPIONS: Whether you call it smartness or something else, closer to the end of terms, you will find a selected bunch of students gushing around their teachers to ‘out’ the paper. They do it a bit discretely though, asking the teacher about the ‘pattern of the exam paper’. Replace ‘pattern’ with ‘content’ and that is what is the actual intent. Irony? The teachers walk into the trap; most of the time willingly.

What always amused me the most were occasions when the odd teacher would go for ‘open book’ subjective assessments. The silence in the exam hall is screaming.

All these categories is indicative of the manner in which society raises its young. Scoring well in schools is treated as the only benchmark of success in life. It is indeed necessary, but not the only thing. And it is that very mindset at play behind most such student categories. And don’t forget the simple fact that the teachers have been students in their lives as well, and today’s students will be tomorrow’s teachers. So the mindset continues to bug the society. It also explains why we fail to produce innovators and motivators. What a pity.

STUDIES are demanding throughout, but when it comes to undergraduate and graduate studies, it only gets tougher by the year. It no longer remains about acing the subjects being taught in the class; instead, it requires mastering the art of life along with studies. That is where extra-curricular activities chip in as they offer a unique set of expertise and skills to students which they can later utilise to excel in their professional lives.

There is said to be some sort of a direct relationship between students’ achievements and their participation in extra-curricular activities. Studies have revealed that students who actively take part in such activities have a chance to score slightly higher grade point averages (GPAs) and miss fewer days of academic routine. To better assess the students’ learning capacities and gauge their skills, there is a greater need to truly understand the impact that participation in extra-curricular activities has on students’ achievements.

Arranging and attending seminars, symposiums and workshops, joining reading groups and taking part in healthy debates; all these things are important for students’ grooming, and leave a long-lasting impact on their career progression.

The sole objective of an educational institution is not just to impart academic excellence, but it is more about striving to achieve overall development of a balanced personality. The activities help students harness a lot of traits like a sense of citizenship, social responsibility, qualities of leadership, teamwork, sportsman spirit, hard work, a sense of responsibility and punctuality, among a host of others.

There is a lot of learning to be had outside the classroom which is just as critical, if not more, in terms of preparing the students for life beyond the universities.

Seminars, workshops or symposiums are conducted with the objective of bringing together a group of interested students on a common platform for facilitating the exchange of ideas, views and developments related to certain pre-defined topics. Usually the workshops and seminars are organised around a particular theme which can further divide into several related topics over the course of separate sessions.

Holding such co-curricular activities is a huge investment in terms of time, commitment and hard work both on the part of students and their teachers, but hard work and dedication make this arduous journey end pleasantly in the form of learning. Such activities also encourage constructive use of time, develop confidence and help in decision-making. Students who have attended such purpose-oriented training workshops speak highly of their experiences, saying the exposure at these events had helped them gain confidence to face professionals.

Taking education beyond the confines of the classroom not only rewards the students academically, but also presents them with an opportunity to test their mettle as professionals. They interact with other students having mutual interests and have the opportunity to deliberate on a number of issues to enrich their lives.

Omer Siddiqui, a young civil engineer, said he attended quite a few workshops and seminars during his student life and it helped his intrapersonal and interpersonal skills. “Technical workshops help explore newer concepts and ideas that might not be covered during the studies or can improve existing knowledge,” said Siddiqui, who now works with a renowned construction company.

He believes that the skills and abilities of students get highlighted during workshops and seminars, and can “help in affirming the path they take towards their professional life”. He continued: “Honing their communication and managerial skills improves their overall work performance.”

Siddiqui also drew attention towards the recent ‘trend’ by certain institutions and workshop organisers of holding leadership trainings. He describes these trainings as “unimpressive”, saying “they are on a fixed pattern and very repetitive”. He added: “I don’t think much of some of these workshops and think that they are nothing but misleading, moneymaking ventures … (they) do not add much value to the students’ experiences”.

Aliza Anis, a communications student who recently graduated from a public-sector university, was of the opinion that attending workshops and seminars only helps if the audience is selected carefully, or the people who sign up for the event are actually dedicated and motivated, “otherwise it’s just a waste of time and breath”.

Oonib Azam, a journalist who covers education beat, said he himself had gained big time from academic seminars during his days at the university, and feels the same for those graduating after him. Not only attending the seminars but also being part of the organising team helped us students “learn public dealing and communication”, Azam said. “We made contacts with professionals and people working in the respective field; it was a great experience,” he added.

Experts have been of the opinion that students who actively participate in co-curricular activities are more focussed towards their academics. Involvement in extra-curricular activities results in improved attendance, student behaviour and academic performance.

Another opinion on the matter is that it may not be entirely correct the participation in co-curricular activities is the factor responsible for producing better grades, but it could be possibly the other way around that ‘good’ students participate in such activities.

Teachers and industry professionals differ in their approach towards imparting skills among students and thus it is through workshops and seminars that students get an opportunity to learn from professionals, in addition to improving their own skills and network.

Moreover, academia and educationists all need to not just rely on what happens in the classroom, but also spare focus on making such co-curricular activities more inclusive. Workshops, seminars and training symposiums should be accommodated as part of the syllabus to enhance the overall studying experience.

The administration of educational institutions should also arrange for such initiatives on their campus premises so that students can tap into the benefits of joint learning and sharing experiences. This also provides students a platform to showcase the skill and abilities they have honed inside the classroom.

Seminars and workshops are a great platform for students to exhibit good knowledge, skills and rich understanding of the things they have learned.

More than just books

EDUCATIONISTS have been of the opinion that education should be more than just books and that the teachers should encourage the learners to participate in co-curricular activities by putting emphasis on the benefits associated with such initiatives. Teachers believe that some students are reluctant in participating in such activities simply because they do not realise the benefits they stand to get out of them.

Khushbo Rafiq, lecturer at a public-sector university, said: “Holding seminars and workshops are very beneficial for students because students learn more outside the classroom”. Quoting Bloom’s taxonomy, she said applying knowledge was a higher category which comes after “remembrance and understanding”.

When asked about how much interest students take in attending workshops, she said: “Majority of students only take interest in such activities if the theme of the seminar or the workshop is attractive. These platforms allow students to gain first-hand knowledge from experts of respective fields. Exchanging work experience is a good way to learn more and eventually prepare about their professional life.”

Khushboo narrated how arranging a small workshop helped them, the teachers, understand and highlight the potential of students. “We recently conducted a workshop on photography skills. Following the workshop, the students were asked to take photographs out in the streets — a downtown locality of Karachi. Students showed great enthusiasm in the exercise and creatively applied the techniques they were taught during the workshop,” she recalled. “We were totally amazed by the quality of student’s work, as they took some really creative photos which were later sent to national and international competitions,” she added.

Humna Mehwish, who teaches at an engineering university, said workshops help student learn about real-life scenarios and challenges, and lets students find solutions to it. She said that these workshops and seminars bring out the true potential of students, like this one student who hosted an event and was praised for her skills, went on to become a public speaker.

Naeem himself wanted to be a doctor, but circumstances were not in his favour, and perhaps that was the reason for his desire to see one of his children to be a doctor. However, Naeem did not force them and allowed them to study what they wanted, and says his children have done him proud as all have studied well. He does not regret his decision of not forcing his will on them despite his intense desire to see one of them donning a medic’s coat.

The decades of 1970s and ’80s were a bit weird. It was a time when most parents and even children aspired to pursue medicine or engineering as career, but now things have changed as more fields are opening up and children are seeking newer challenges.

On the one hand, unlike Naeem, many parents forced their children back then to follow their professions, while on the other many children themselves, inspired by the parents, chose to take the same field. There were – and are – families where parents, grandparents and children are engaged in the same profession, either by choice or per force.

Are children mature at, say, age 16 to decide their career paths? Is parental guidance critical or is it just a reflection of their own inner desire?

Dr Shershah’s family is one such unit where all children study medicine. Though his father was not a doctor himself, he made his wife study medicine after marriage and then asked all of his eight children to follow the routine. All of them are now accomplished doctors and their children are also either studying medicine or are doctors, bringing the number to above 40 within the immediate family.

The question is: who should choose what a child should study; whether parents should decide what field their children should pursue, or should the decision be left with the children themselves?

Some parents think that children are not mature enough to take such decisions. They think that at age 16 or 17 when the decision has to be taken before starting the Intermediate or its equivalent, the A levels, children are not able to understand a lot of things or foresee future trends. “How can a child at this age take a decision all by himself/herself about what they want to study?” wonders Hammad, a banker. “The child may be influenced by his/her friends and may be following the crowd. We are more experienced and, being the parents, we know what is best for them.”

However, children think that they know where the world is going more than the senior generation. That is why we hear of conflicts between parents and their wards.

Akhtar Rizvi thinks that children can decide after they have done Intermediate or graduation, but before that they are not mature enough to take such a decision. However, he concedes that they should have a say and neither they nor the parents should be adamant about any particular field.

Eighteen-year-old Ahmed believes that children should have the option to choose their career as they know what they want to do in life and what suits them. Some parents don’t understand their children and they may not have paid attention to the child’s interest or they were busy in providing for the family. Also, some parents try to fulfil their aspirations through their children, which is not the right thing to do. However, he agrees that the parents should “guide the children not only in this but in all matters as parents have more experience, wisdom and knowledge”.

Countering parents’ argument that when children decide about their careers on their own, there is the risk that they may go wrong, Ahmed says: “Even parents can take wrong decisions. I have seen parents forcing their children into certain careers and the students could not perform well as they were never interested in the subjects.”

He gives the example of his cousin who was forced to take admission in a medical college, but he dropped out after two years because of failure to perform. But when he joined an MBA programme, where his interest lay, he out-performed everybody’s expectations.

No doubt, parents have the best intensions when they take any decision about their children but they should consider their child’s interests. If a child is interested in music or painting, he can’t be expected to do well if he is forced to join a more paying and traditional profession. One should think what is more important: a satisfying career where the child is happy, or a career where the child will be stressed and unhappy.

Binte Zehra, who teaches at the visual studies department at Karachi University, is in favour of giving the students the option to select their careers and fields of study. “Most often when students take a subject just because their parents want them to study that particular subject, they cannot excel,” she says. “They are often intelligent but because they are not interested in the subject, they do not perform as well as their peers and begin to suffer from inferiority complex which can lead to depression. They often take out their frustration on their friends, picking up fights, etc.”

Agreeing that students doing Matric or O levels are not mature enough and are not aware of the scope of different subjects, she emphasises the role of career counsellors. “Career counselling is important during school from class VIII onwards. The counsellor can guide the students according to their aptitude and interest on what subjects to study and what career path to choose,” she says.

Whether parents should guide their children in career choice? Says Zehra: “Parents should definitely guide them but not force them to join any specific field. During the parents-teacher meeting, instead of teachers just reporting on the child’s performance, a session should be held with career counsellors who can guide the parent about various subjects and the pros and cons of forcing a child into some specific career.”

Rehana Ali, a mentor teacher in California, let her only daughter choose her own career path. “She was always good with writing and language arts, so she decided to study Public Relations, a branch of Mass Communication, and she is doing great and will be graduating this spring,” says Ali. She thinks that when children choose, they perform better. “She loves what she does and seeing her accomplishments, I feel that children should have the choice to follow their hearts and fulfil their dreams. I know if I had convinced her to select some other career, she would have taken my advice but she would not be very happy and wouldn’t do as well as she is doing with her chosen career.”

On the matter of teenagers’ capacity to take the right decisions without parental advice or guidance, Ali explains how the system works in the US and how it enables children to choose the right path. “In the US, students go to high school for four years and they are given the opportunity to choose different subjects and also discover their strengths,” she says.

“Parents do play a vital role in guiding them; counsellors at school also help them to choose their major according to their interest and capability. Some parents are determined for their children to go into certain fields, so they meet with the school staff and chalk out a plan so their child can get some special tutoring in certain subjects and strengthen their skills in those areas.

“When they enter college, they don’t have to choose their field right away. They can go undecided or choose it at the beginning. They have to complete the general education classes first. They also have the choice of changing their major if they are not sure by the second year of college.”

While most people would agree that parents can’t force their will on their children, parents should be more receptive to the dreams and aspirations of their children, and the children, too, should be more open to explore options rather than set their hearts and minds on any one field and understand that parental guidance is of vital importance. What is more important is that the child should do well and be happy with what he is doing in the long run.

BACK in 2017, the then head of Higher Education Commission (HEC) had told pubic with a heavy heart that the country was facing a shortage of 36,000 PhDs in various subjects, and, as such, had asked the government to increase budget for higher education to meet such critical challenges in the sector. Around a year later, a large number of PhDs protested on the streets of Islamabad, asking the government to provide them employment! Can you beat that?

PhDs, as we know, are groomed to become senior academics, but Khyber Pakhutunkhwa (KP) education minister’s revelation turned out to be somewhat shocking when recently he disclosed that his department had received more than 700,000 applications for 17,000 vacant teaching posts in primary and secondary schools and, unfortunately, some of them were PhDs.

It is clear that the HEC bosses have absolutely no clue about managing the PhD programme. This is enough to prove that for our leaders, education has never even been a priority which is one big factor hindering our growth as a nation. If we look at the state of education in Pakistan, it becomes absolutely clear why we are lagging behind other nations and why so many of our people are deeply frustrated and alienated.

Quite contrary to the HEC report about the shortage of PhDs, the opportunities for PhDs are so limited that they are compelled to compete with simple graduates for jobs in schools and other organisations. A report reveals that 1,000 PhDs are still on the waiting list for HEC has not been able to provide jobs in universities. A jobless PhD during the protest said, “This shows a complete failure of the government’s policy. This is also because incompetent people are on key posts in HEC. Frankly speaking, the government has not been able to use PhD doctors. On the other hand, most jobs are only advertised for graduates, postgraduates and MPhil degree holders, and there are no jobs for fresh PhD holders. Most apply for jobs they are overqualified for.”

People with PhD degrees are applying for entry-level jobs. Is there a problem with the degrees or with the system?

The protestors, therefore, demanded that they be given permanent jobs in the departments they were initially posted in on one-year contracts. Besides, they demanded the establishment of a task force for accommodating PhD holders even in non-teaching institutions and for the task force to make recommendations on an urgent basis.

Though the HEC had started a good programme to produce PhD scholars in order to put on track the education sector in the country; it lacks proper planning and scheduling. The result therefore, is a glut of PhDs. To achieve the desired result of providing suitable jobs to PhDs in universities there is a need to produce PhDs keeping in view the requirement. The seemingly haphazard planning will result in disaster because a large number of PhDs are still struggling to make even both ends meet.

According to a report published in Dawn, “It is common knowledge, after all, that Pakistan has amongst the poorest educational indicators in the world. To quote just one report – Unesco’s Education for All Global Monitoring Report – Pakistan is ranked amongst the top three countries in the world that have the highest number of out-of-school children. The issue of quality comes later, yet presents an equally dismal picture – even when compared to neighbouring South Asian countries.”

Now is the time to take education rather seriously keeping in view the old saying that until we get quality in education, we won’t have good society. The HEC must revisit its priorities according to the requirement of the country and prepare both short-term and long-term plans to yield better results.

A protestor rightly said, “HEC had initiated local and international PhD programmes to increase the number of scholars to fulfill criteria of PhD staff members and improve quality of education. But the PhD scholars were still jobless after a huge investment on the programme such as Rs1.5 million per scholar within four years (local programme) and Rs3-4 million (international programme)”. Such kind of investments can be termed sheer wastage and a Third World country like ours just can’t afford it.

On the other hand, one fails to understand why for as long as seven years, more than 1,000 PhD-degree holders have been waiting to get registered in the country’s directory of the HEC, as without it, their degrees are irrelevant – some of them have been waiting since 2010 to get registered, while the rest since 2016. Still depressing is the fact is that ignoring the defined minimum criteria of at least five PhD faculty members for establishing a department in a university, the HEC has given no-objection certificates (NOCs) to many universities which do not fulfill the criteria.

Now if we talk about the quality of our PhDs, Pervez Hoodbhoy’s article titled ‘Enough PhDs, thank you’ is interesting. He writes, “Sadly, the presentations by most Pakistani PhDs were uninteresting, others were wrong. One was even laughably wrong. Probably the worst was by a professor who was not just a ‘doctor’ but a ‘professor doctor’. This terrible pomposity, borrowed from some German tradition, is now routinely augmented with ‘distinguished professor’, ‘national professor’ and what-not. Like cartoon generals who have won no wars but have medals stuck to oversized chests, Pakistan now has legions of highly paid ignoramus cartoon professors.”

Though the views expressed by Mr Hoobhoy may seem to be a bit harsh, it definitely says a lot about the lack of thoroughness in PhD research carried out by Pakistani researchers many of whom do not understand the true meaning of research, even after they have become ‘doctors’.

The information provided by the HEC chairman during a seminar conducted to discuss ‘higher education trends and prospects in Pakistan’ that over 110 PhD programmes across various public and private universities had been closed due to poor quality , to a great extend substantiate the views of Mr Hoodbhoy. He further added: “We will not tolerate corruption in academia even though the HEC is under a lot of pressure from those with influence in Pakistan.” This statement is enough to verify that a number of PhDs produced in Pakistan are not worthy of using the prefix of ‘Dr’ with their names.

Dr. Mukhtar also admitted that the HEC’s current focus is to improve the quality of education imparted in Pakistan while ensuring that academic research being done is of use to Pakistan and society at large. He admitted further: “There is no use of racing to get listed in rankings and journals with higher impact factor if there is no impact or practical outcome of the generated knowledge.”

Mr Hoodbhoy also says that no country becomes wealthy by printing a mountain of paper currency. And no university system becomes better by dishing out substandard PhD degrees, or by accepting vacuous research papers as valid. Instead, the way forward lies in adhering to strict ethical standards, cultivating excellence, rejecting mediocrity, and nurturing a spirit of inquiry and intellectual excitement.

The HEC has further worsened the situation by declaring the benefits to the supervising professors. The benefits include a monthly honorarium and bonuses for synopsis, publications, thesis defence etc. This has resulted in many advisors becoming greedy enough to enrol every Tom, Dick and Harry with them for the sake of this huge sum of money. In quest of earning more and more, they keep on enrolling more and more for PhD plan, resulting in deterioration in the standard.

To sum up, one may say that before enrolling any student for PhD programme, the supervising professor must sit with the candidate for counselling just to find out if the candidate is serious for taking up teaching as a profession or he wants to go for it just for the heck of it.

It goes without saying that only those who aim to join universities at higher level should be enrolled, and not those who join the programme for the sake of adding another degree to one’s resume. Seriously speaking, this is one of the ways to enrol serious students. There is definitely a need to restrict such a large number of people for if the objective is employment in the public or private sector at entry level, these qualifications are not required.

TAQI is a young banker working for a large local bank in Karachi. With a relevant degree from IBA his career is set to flourish in the years to come. However, Taqi has another feather in the cap that many young Pakistanis are increasingly looking for; he got his Master’s degree from China.

When we talk of higher education, China is the latest go-to destination for Pakistanis. It wasn’t always so. As the roots of our education system lie with Western practices and the fact that the premier language of education is English, it was always the West that the students yearned to go to. Europe, including the UK and North America were the only places that Pakistani students with a flourishing career in the mind went to. Then came Australia. And the investment paid off.

One look at the higher management of all the leading companies in the country and financial institutions will settle the case in favour of the Western universities. Scanning through the job opportunities, ‘foreign graduates’ is by default assumed to be referring to some Western seat of learning. However, there is now a new flavour being added; that of China.

The definition of foreign universities now accepts Chinese seats of learning as well. Given the importance of CPEC and the continued influx of Chinese investments in the country, it is but natural that Chinese education starts getting accepted in Pakistan. Again, this is a natural tilt as seen by our experiences earlier. Western education was highly sought after by West-based business conglomerates and their Pakistani subsidiaries. So why not Chinese education for China-based businesses?

Studying in China seems to be one of the better things to do for those seeking foreign education. There are many takers in Corporate Pakistan today for those having exposure to the distinct language and culture.

The Chinese government too has been promoting Chinese education and universities. Though judging by the generous scholarships and grants, it does not look like its education-based tourism that is on offer there. It is more like China is through with the process of getting its educational institutions aligned with the global business needs, which, in turn, are after all aligned with the needs of the second largest economy of the world. It is this advantage that Taqi opted for.

“A few years ago I was fishing for a university to go to when I came across Chinese universities. I didn’t know much and neither did my peers. Of course, we all had planned for the future in the US or the UK. But somehow it made sense for me to apply in China. It is a growing economy and is being fuelled by its local workforce that includes highly educated locals. And that got me thinking about giving it a shot.”

After clearing an entrance test in Islamabad, Taqi was on his way to Shanghai, China, to study at a leading university there to get his higher education. “I was scolded, warned by all my near and dear ones of the grave mistake I was supposedly making. China was definitely not in anyone’s good books … at least anyone belonging to the generation before me. And the first day that I landed in Shanghai, I almost regretted the decision myself!”

Studying in China is now the ‘in’ thing. Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong remain the most popular study-abroad destinations. Other popular locations in China include Chengdu, Tianjin, and Kunming. And all these have one thing in common: the Chinese language or the Mandarin.

Says Taqi: “When I arrived in Shanghai, I was taken aback as I couldn’t find anyone who could communicate in English. There were Chinese everywhere, in their millions. On my first day there, I really thought what a blunder I had made.”

China is a huge country, which spans over 22 provinces and five autonomous regions, many with their own distinct culture, dialect and way of life. Anywhere you go it will offer something unique and different — so research carefully, choose wisely, and travel a lot while you study abroad in China!

 Common academic areas of study in China include maths, economics, engineering, political science, urban development, and, of course, Mandarin. Programmes available in major Chinese cities usually combine academic study with a variety of intensive language lessons and culturally immersive opportunities.

The language barrier can be a very real obstacle to breaching China’s increasingly prominent national university system. While world-class institutions like Tsinghua University, Peking University, and Fudan University are the crown jewel in the eye of every Chinese national student, most classes are generally taught in Mandarin, which make enrollment a challenge for international students not studying Chinese.

However, many of these schools do reach out with international programmes to attract foreign students, and some subject areas, such as international business, are often taught in English. And then there is always the ‘pengyou’, a local friend who will be your friend and your guide as well.

In Taqi’s case it was a fellow student who volunteered and helped the newly arrived Pakistani sort out his issues. “This Chinese student helped me settle in my dorm, open a bank account, find my classes, basically he was my guide. In exchange he wanted help in improving his English, which I gladly helped him with.”

But language is only a barrier for those who are entering the country for the first time. If you want to learn a language or a culture, the best way to do it is to go and live within that society.

Though basic, entry-level Chinese lessons are part and parcel of the courses on offer, the more you hang out, challenge yourself and try to communicate with others, the more you will learn. Just listen and catch common expressions like ‘Nihao’ or ‘XieXie’ and then try to say them with your friend.

The people on the streets too are friendly. The ingrained hospitality there always forces others to help the foreigner within the group. Yes, unlike the West, in China, you will be one in a million. Brown skin and those distinct facial features definitely help you stand apart.

Another good thing about China is that it is affordable even on a student’s budget. The cost of living is quite cheap compared to most Western countries. Many prices are negotiable. Prices are lower in rural areas than in the cities, and informal marketplaces are cheaper than international brands. There are scams and artificially marked-up prices. You will learn. And the Chinese people will help you do that for they are unendingly hospitable and sincerely interested in knowing more about you. 

Education in China is not just about degrees, it is about culture and the experiences. The Chinese enjoy a hot beverage, which will leave you scratching your head as even in the hot humid summers, the Chinese drink boiling-hot tea. It is the national pastime, it seems.

Talk to people. Throw in your limited knowledge of the language. Plan trips. Go see the Great Wall; the best time to be there is around sunset. Don’t worry, there is plenty of space up there.

Taqi, when recalling his experiences, reminisces that going to China was the best decision he made. “Not only did I get a degree, I learnt a lot too. I wasn’t the only foreign student in the class. There were others from Europe and Africa as well.

“My teacher didn’t want me to go at the end of my programme. He offered me a job with one of their teaching programmes, one where I could share my knowledge of English with the local students. I taught Finance and banking to the locals, in English. I had a great opportunity to be there for a long time. But my parents were looking forward to me returning and then my wedding too was on hold. So, here I am. However, I do look forward to visiting Shanghai once again. Maybe soon.”

At the moment, there’s a huge plus side to studying in China. When Pakistani students foray into Western educational institutions, they get the opportunity to stay and work there, resulting in a brain drain that has cost Pakistan dearly. In case of China, the cultural and language differences are so huge that the most viable option, instead of struggling to get a job and acceptance in a foreign land, is to come back home and make use of your newly added soft skills, including a new language and get the corporate acceptance here.

Pakistani as well as Chinese companies with their presence here are courting Pakistani graduates, young graduates with additional expertise in Chinese language, to come and work for them. These are indeed good times. Studying in China is the best thing on the plate right now. Not only the degree but getting to learn the Chinese language and the Chinese culture is an added experience. The Chinese take a lot of pride in their culture and give immense respect to anyone who can speak or understand their language.