The Near Worthless Certificate Called Degree

The time and period when Parents had to bequeath lands, cocoa farms and other valuable assets to their wards is long gone. Parents strive through thick and thin to ensure that their wards are educated. Education is the new asset a parent can leave behind for his/her child. The lives of many people have been altered because of education. Had it not been for education, most people would have perished without a trace.

It has indeed given a lot of people hope in life and a sense of pride by virtue of the careers education has offered them. Education has helped a lot of nonentities cross the economic divide from ‘never had’ or ‘will never get’ to wealthy relevant people in society. In simple terms education was the key to life but now we can’t even find the padlock. It is now turning into a total fallacy and mythical to try and convince a young graduate that education can help him make it life.

Successive governments have not covered themselves in a glory with regards to unemployment. They have not expanded the economy enough to absorb the growing number of graduates being churned out by the numerous tertiary institutions. Instead some of our leaders tend to blame the curriculum being used in our various tertiary institutions. But need I say more, that same curriculum has produced a lot of good quality graduates who are making inroads locally and internationally.

Others too will normally quip its only lazy graduates who stay at home idle, they should do something for themselves. I then ask myself this question, that how many of our now opulent politicians and leaders had a dime after graduating from the tertiary institution? That is not in any way to suggest that graduates should not venture into entrepreneurship; far from that.

There are lots of young graduates who have impeccable business proposals on paper but the problem is source of funding or credit. We live in a country where interest rate keeps galloping at an astonishing rate and banks would even prefer to give loans out to people with a lower risk of payment like the government. Ask established businesses how they are frantically competing with government for loans.

If as a country the government is the highest employer, employing about five hundred thousand people then obviously it tells you there is something fundamentally wrong. In most advanced and thriving economies, the private sector is the highest employer which is exactly the reverse in our country.

No wonder the few who are a part of the lucky five hundred thousand will do anything to keep a dynasty in the public service. That is they employ their relatives and cronies even in the wake of employment embargo in the Public sector.

There is widespread unemployment in the country but the worst off are university and polytechnic graduates. In times past there was a lot of presteige and respect accorded to people who attended the university but now things have drastically changed. Attending the university is now seen by parents and most students alike as practically throwing yourself into the depressing state of unemployment.

There is nothing like career ambitions any longer, you offer a course that will ensure that your bread is buttered. Most senior high school students you ask today will tell you they would want to be a nurse, teacher or enter the security services. After all it is better to be gainfully employed than to be a degree holder in penury. That is why there are a lot of people in the nursing, teaching and the security services who do not have any passion for the job. They are in the job so not to be deemed unemployed, also to benefit from the handsome ‘single spine’ and not scolded by society as educated paupers. And rightly so you cannot fault them man must ‘eat’.

Look at the mad rush for forms of the above mentioned institutions and the incessant recruitment scams that have bedeviled these institutions. It’s obvious there is a steaming problem. I have witnessed lots of graduates out of frustration purchase forms in order to be admitted into the nursing or teacher training schools or enlisted into the various security services. After all they will be gainfully employed after their training programme and it’s all that matters.

Recently I came across a news item where a master’s degree holder in oil and gas from the University of Coventry UK has decided to end his fruitless search for a job by driving a taxi cab in other to make ends meet. It is gradually becoming a vicious cycle where most young graduates think that they can escape the unemployment net by furthering their education to the master’s level where they are sure to secure a job with their master’s degree. This reminds me of this Akan adage which says that ‘’If the game will be sweet it starts right from the morning”. What is the guarantee that a master’s degree will all of a sudden secure you a job?

If the situation should persist, very soon PHD holders will be gallivanting for unavailable jobs.

Unemployment is sickening the least to talk of graduate unemployment. It is demeaning, depressing and at times you are tempted to think that you are under a spell. If it reaches its crescendo, that is when you begin to roam from one pastor, spiritualist and deity to the other.

You begin to blame everyone from family members to even yourself for your plight.It can make one hysterical, paranoid and schizophrenic.

Graduate unemployment is a canker, its an issue which could pose a serious security threat to our nation if not tackled earnestly. Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) OF THE Niger Delta and other extremist groups started from somewhere.

When people feel that the state is not doing enough to secure their future but see politicians living affluent lifeclasss, they will certainly react through nefarious acts like kidnapping and robbery to demand their pound of flesh.

There should be a concerted effort from government and stakeholders to finding solutions to this unfortunate anomaly.

The dream, aspirations, hopes of a generation is gradually descending into an abyss through graduate unemployment. The nation and its leaders must act decisively else posterity will never forgive this generation.

By: Kingsley Opoku-Amoako

Email:opokuamok@gmail.com