ISLAMABAD, Feb 5: A government report finds serious flaws in the education system of the country. It stresses need for reforms in technical and vocational education and training to make up for the shortage of a skilled labour force.
The report, ‘Pakistan Employment Trends’, prepared by a wing of the ministry of labour, manpower and overseas Pakistanis, says the vocational education system is full of shortcomings and it has not been able to provide manpower required in different fields.
Overall low educational attainment and enrolment levels have led to gaps in skills and shortage of skilled labour.
Without a workforce continuously acquiring new and improved skills, it will be difficult for Pakistan to sustain economic growth and become competitive in the globalising world.
The labour force with formal/vocational training has declined or remained unchanged in 25 out of the 43 provided training types. The highest decrease with 4.8 percentage points is recorded in computer courses, followed by a 3.8 decrease in the number of people with formal/vocational training in auto-mechanical courses.
The ministry has stressed the urgent need for greater investment in skills and training to enable men and women to have enhanced and equal access to productive and decent work. Economic growth, changes in work organisation and processes, and especially technological progress require better skilled workers.
The report, using data primarily from a Labour Force Survey, analyses educational attainment, enrolment, and technical and vocational training activity in the context of competitiveness.
Some key findings of the ‘Pakistan Employment Trends’ reveal that highly skilled occupations are on the rise, which is in line with Pakistan’s economic development in general and the decline of agriculture as a source of employment in particular.
Highly skilled occupations accounted for 19.90 per cent of the employed in 2005-2006, an increase of 1.80 percentage points since 1999-2000. There was 22.70 per cent increase in real wage rates in highly skilled occupations of employees between 1999 and 2000 and 2005 and 2006, compared to 8.10 and 11.60 per cent in skilled and unskilled occupations respectively.
The proportion of the labour force (15 years and above) with less than one year of education decreased from 53.30 per cent in 2000 to 46.20 per cent in 2006. The female illiteracy rate stands at 59.40 per cent, which is 24.40 percentage points higher than males.
During the 2000 to 2006 period, educational attainment has improved across all levels. For example, the labour force with pre-primary and primary education rose by 1.30 percentage points. The labour force having completed matriculation but not intermediate education grew from 11.40 to 12.80 per cent and educational attainment at the degree level increased from 4.60 to 5.90 per cent.
Enrolment rates for the population aged 15 and above slightly increased during the period between 2000 and 2006 in almost all educational attainment levels. The biggest improvement of 0.13 percentage points was seen in the enrolment of the population with intermediate education but without any degrees.
