We reap what we sow - the case of the unemployable local graduates
From The SUN today:-
70% of grads from public institutions jobless
B.Suresh Ram
KUALA LUMPUR: Some 70% of public universities and institutes of higher learning graduates in the country are unemployed.
This is in contrast with 26% for private institutions of higher learning and 34% for foreign graduates.
Deputy Human Resources Minister Datuk Abdul Rahman Bakar revealed the figures today (July 3, 2006) in reply to a question from Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timor).
He said the ministry had taken several steps, including the establishment of the graduates' retraining training scheme as well as providing feedback to the Higher Education and the Education Ministries, to ensure courses are in line with those required by the job market.
To the original question by Tan Sri Dr Ting Chew Peh (BN-Gopeng), Abdul Rahman said 20,217 graduates registered with the ministry's Job Clearing System were still unemployed as at June 12.
The breakdown showed:-
- UiTM 3,278 (16.2%) - highest number of employed graduates
- UUM 1,532 (7.6%)
- private institutions of higher learning 1,217 (6%)
- UTM 1,147(5.7%)
- UKM 971 (4.8%)
- UPM 919 (4.5%)
- other public institutions of higher learning 840 (4.2%)
- UM 531 (2.6%)
- USM 505 (2.5%)
- UMS 371 (1.8%)
- UIA 358 (1.8%)
- foreign graduates 342 (1.7%)
- Unimas 174 (0.9%)
- UPSI 39 (0.2%)
- Others 7,993 (39.5%)
This is followed by:-
- Business Administration with 2,714 (13.4%)
- Accountancy 1,923 (9.5%)
- Electric/Electronic and Telecommunication engineers 1,229 (6.1%)
- Human Resources Management 1,022 (5.1%)
- Civil Engineers 983 (4.9%)
- Mechanical/Mechatronic Engineers 884 (4.4%)
- Literature Social Science 843 (4.2%)
- Pure Science 770 (3.8%)
- Financial/banking/insurance/investment/property 613 (3%)
- Office technology Management/Information management/Library Management 552 (2.7%)
- Architecture/Building/Quantity Surveying/ land surveying 540 (2.7%)
- Applied Science 533 (2.6%)
- Economy 440 (2.2%)
- Agriculture/Forestry, Fisheries/Environment 401 (2%)
- Others 2,828 (13.9%).
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Survey the views of private sector employers, is this such a surprise?
The answer you will most certainly get is, NO!
Why?
We REAP what we SOW.
The failure of our public education system is symptomatic of what is also happening to our civil service. It will take a herculean effort and massive mindset change to reverse the decline that has steadily eroded the respectability of both institutions in the eyes of the public.
No, it is not about merely throwing more money at this problem. That is just an excuse to distract the mind from the real issues and at the same time, make a quick buck out of the sorry situation.
It is about being HONEST with ourselves about why we have ended up with such a mess.
It is about doing the right thing for the survival of the very thing you have been championing all along.
You have done just the opposite. It has been a slow, agonising, strangling and choking way to love your people to death.
Labels: Education
posted by Arena Green at 8:00 am
13 Comments:
It all boils down to system design. It was designed to produce quantities of such at the expense of quality inorder to "catch up" with the other races.
Another is: Mahathir's decision to go Bahasa of which he later regreted and turn around, just too late.
I wonder why they never bothered to show the breakdown by race in the statistics? Malu kah?
The quality of the uni intake have direct correlation with how good our graduates are.... think about it.
Aiyah, why so shy Mr/Ms Anon?
Give me an identity so that I can remember you during your next visit. In case this is your first time, I do enjoy getting to know my blog readers.
I promise you I won't bite at your comments (if you don't also bark lah!) LOL :-)
Good article, cik amoi.
I would say the root cause of this problem goes back many years when the government simply changed the status of Mara colleges to university status - not sure who was the Education Minister then.
The authorities thought they just upgrade the schools and then get more graduates via the magic "matriculation" route.
The sad ending is that we now have graduates who have been hoodwinked by the authorities.
I suspect that many of them are potential candidates to be recruited by terrorist groups.
Thanks, HJ for the encouragement. It makes my blogging more pleasurable! :-)
Unfortunately our authorities don't seem to want to admit that they are sitting on a time-bomb which has serious repercussions on society.
Notwithstanding that they might be potential terrors, it would be just as bad for us if they resort to other petty and dangerous crimes just so that they don't starve to death.
SIgh, no wonder some just go sell VCDS by the sidewalk. They're earning RM3000 for 2 weeks' work. :-(
I think the statistics are skewed. The numbers are from those who registered with the Government's Job Clearing System. What percentage of private sector and overseas grads do you think registered compared with those from the public sector institutions? After all, didn't the Government mention a figure of 85K unemployed grads not too long ago (I think in Najib's Mandarin requirement is discriminatory) compared to the 20K figure mentioned here?
banana
I think the statistics are skewed. The numbers are from those who registered with the Government's Job Clearing System. What percentage of private sector and overseas grads do you think registered compared with those from the public sector institutions? After all, didn't the Government mention a figure of 85K unemployed grads not too long ago (I think in Najib's Mandarin requirement is discriminatory) compared to the 20K figure mentioned here?
banana
the philippines also has a large number of unemployed graduates, many of our young people are eager to work abroad since opportunities are little in ouruntry
Hello Mong! Thanks for dropping by all the way from the Philippines!
I know how sad it is for some of your countrymen/women. I pray that Malaysians will not have to travel down the same painful path in the near future due to poor political leadership.
I believe the next generation will be doing just that when the oil runs out.
banana
That's a rather depressing prophecy, banana ...
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