The issue of graduate unemployment

The educational authorities are reportedly in the process of working out the graduate employability ratios of every university faculty and this is a measure which needs to be carried out compulsorily if the issue of graduate unemployment is to be resolved systematically. In the case of Science and Commerce graduates, it is the dynamism and growth of the local economy which would ensure for them steady employment and our hope is that the Lankan economy would consistently embody these conditions.

Sri Lanka has been bedeviled with the problem of graduate unemployment over the decades and there needs to be economic and social planning of a very intense and consistent kind if the issue is to be contained. Since the local economy is reportedly growing at a considerable rate we do not have any reason to believe that the services of our Science and Commerce graduates would go a begging but a considerable number of unemployed Arts graduates could prove a very difficult poser, as it always has turned out to be.

The need for consistent central planning cannot be overlooked in these contexts. Hopefully, the local state is very steady in this undertaking. National needs should be established first, and the required number of graduates from each academic discipline worked out carefully on that basis. Today, in addition to doctors, engineers and scientists in general, we require a significant number of Commerce graduates, since business and commerce are very much on the ascendant in the local economy. The latter need is also underscored by the emergence of the Services as a significant component of our economy. Hence, the need is great for accountants, bankers and economic planners, to name a few such categories of essential personnel.

Likewise, the current construction and physical infrastructure boom would require the steady turning out of, besides construction engineers, surveyors and numerous categories of technicians. Needless to say, the education on offer from the primary school level, would need to cater to these needs. Fortunately, vocational and technical training is receiving considerable priority at present and this is the way to go if the more primary national needs are to be met.

Arts graduate unemployment, however, has proved to be the Gordian Knot in the context of education planning and employment generation. We do not incline to the parochial, unenlightened view that the Liberal Arts are of no or little value. This would amount to the adoption of an extreme and lop-sided viewpoint. However, what is undisputable is that from the employment viewpoint, Arts graduates pose some difficult issues.

The artist is as valuable as the scientist and the proficient man of commerce. The balanced personality would be one who is equally conversant in Science, Arts and Commerce. Each of these disciplines contributes towards life’s fullness and richness. Therefore, the challenge is to have Arts graduates who are also employable. After all, it should not be forgotten that the educated- unemployed could constitute a seething cauldron of social discontent with its attendant social and political ills.

At this juncture, the local educational authorities would need to think ‘out of the box.’ If the content of the education of the average local Arts graduate, who is unemployed, is analyzed, it could be found that it is top-heavy with subjects that are of little utility value. For instance, there is little use in studying languages which are considered ‘dead.’ There would be no harm in doing so if the undergraduate concerned also studies disciplines, such as, Economics, Statistics and Business Studies. Such broad-based programmes of study need to be encouraged, if this is not already happening.

Accordingly, from the very inception, Arts undergraduates, in particular, would need to be counseled steadily on which subject combinations to offer for their degree courses. National needs would need to figure constantly in the minds of educational planners if the problem of educated unemployment is to be weeded out.